Home Democratic management privately confronted the roughly dozen progressive members of their caucus for apparently disregarding requests for decorum throughout President Donald Trump’s horrible speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
In response to Axios, the three most senior Home Democratic leaders—Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries—gathered the group of disruptors on Thursday morning. The trio was reportedly “very unhappy” with the cadre of leftist lawmakers who (gasp!) coordinated outfits or refused to clap throughout Trump’s almost two-hour speech.
Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, had been among the many progressive lawmakers known as into the “come to Jesus meeting.”
A supply accustomed to the gathering harassed that the lawmakers had been “not getting yelled at” nor had been they “being talked to like they are children.” As an alternative, Home Democratic management stated they needed the affected legislators to “understand why their strategy is a bad idea.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York and fellow Democrats protest President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on March 4, 2025.
“It doesn’t surprise me leadership is very upset. They gave specific instructions not to do that,” one other supply stated, seemingly referring to a “dear colleague” letter that Jeffries despatched to the caucus earlier than Trump’s tackle.
Within the letter, Jeffries urged his colleagues to have a “strong, determined, and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.” Democrats had been additionally privately advised to not use props through the president’s speech.
However some rank-and-file Democrats ignored each requests.
Stansbury, as an illustration, held an indication studying, “This is NOT normal,” which was yanked out of her palms by GOP Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas. And Frost wore a shirt donning the phrase, “No Kings Live Here,” an obvious reference to Trump’s description of himself as a “king” in a latest publish on Fact Social.
Democrats don’t appear to know the way they plan to protest Trump—assuming they even wish to in any respect. Those that vote in favor of the president’s agenda, even when they later admit that they screwed up, face few penalties. In the meantime, silent protesters are admonished behind closed doorways whereas those that object to Trump’s lies extra blatantly—corresponding to Rep. Al Inexperienced of Texas—get censured by the Home, together with by 10 fellow Democrats.
Maybe Democratic management needed all protests to happen exterior of the chamber. However contemplating that the majority of their caucus has struggled to search out an efficient option to name out Trump, it’s shameful to tug apart the few members who’ve immediately pushed again towards the Trump administration.
Shocking nobody, different “Democrats”—like Rep. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—have additionally admonished dissenters. On the day of Trump’s speech, Fetterman known as the protests “a sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance” in a publish on X.
Notably, Democrats’ takedown of their very own caucus’ protesting strategies isn’t all that totally different from what Trump himself stated shortly after Inexperienced was kicked out of the chamber.
“This is my fifth such speech to Congress,” he stated, “and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud.”
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