Rep. Al Green heckles President Trump during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) is staring down multiple House Republican censure efforts after he was escorted out of the House chamber Tuesday for heckling during President Trump’s speech to Congress.
Why it matters: Green’s outburst kicked off a a night filled with Democratic disruptions and heckling — a level of chaos heretofore unseen at presidential addresses.
- Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was reprimanded in a bipartisan vote for simply shouting “you lie!” during then-President Obama’s speech in 2009.
- By the later years of Joe Biden’s presidency, however, State of the Union outbursts had become commonplace, with Republicans often heckling him en masse without repercussions.
Driving the news: The right-wing House Freedom Caucus said in a post on X that they will “be introducing a censure resolution against Rep. Al Green today.”
- The Freedom Caucus had threatened ahead of Trump’s speech to try to censure any Democrat who heckled or disrupted the president.
- Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), a former Freedom Caucus member who left the group last year, told Axios he, too, plans to introduce a censure resolution.
- Whichever censure measure takes primacy is likely to have support from GOP leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday night that Green “should be censured.”
The other side: Green, who has said he plans to try to impeach Trump, told Axios in a phone interview that he will not fight the censure effort.
- “If I broke the rules, then I have to be prepared to suffer the consequences, You don’t break the rules and then demand that you be treated as though nothing ever happened,” the Texas Democrat said.
- Green had stood up and shouted that Trump does not have a mandate to cut Medicaid. “I did it because Medicaid is so important to my constituents,” he told Axios on Wednesday morning.
- “Let them bring their sanctions. Bring them on,” he said.
Yes, but: Any censure vote is still likely to fall down along partisan lines, with Democrat closing ranks around Green, lawmakers told Axios.
- A senior House Democrat and a House Democratic centrist both said they do not expect anyone from their party to support the measure.