House Democrats hold up signs, point and heckle during President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Congressional Democrats’ internal divisions over how to combat President Trump surfaced with a fury Wednesday after the president was repeatedly heckled and disrupted during his speech to Congress.
Why it matters: The party is in a rut, stumbling on finding the most effective counterattack to Trump’s full-bore assault on the federal bureaucracy. That struggle played out on primetime television Tuesday night.
- Democrats have been bombarded by grassroots activists demanding they scrap norms and traditions in favor of bare-knuckle political brawling.
- But many party leaders and other establishment-oriented Democrats believe that a more narrow, subdued approach remains the most effective.
- A senior House Democrat told Axios that some moderates are angry at progressives for their outbursts, but added that “people are pissed at leadership too. … Everyone is mad at everyone.”
What happened: Trump’s speech was rocked by disruptions right from the start, with Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) repeatedly heckling the president until Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ordered Green escorted out of the chamber.
- Democrats held up signs and wore shirts with slogans blasting DOGE and Elon Musk, walked out of the chamber in protest, and heckled Trump throughout his 100-minute speech.
- A large portion of Democrats opted for more traditional, silent forms of protest — color-coordinated outfits or refusing to stand or clap for most of the speech — without resorting to disruptive tactics.
What they’re saying: Rep. George Latimer (D-N.Y.) said he felt the disruptions were “inappropriate,” telling Axios, “When a president — my president, your president — is speaking, we don’t interrupt, we don’t pull those stunts.”
- “I didn’t take that approach myself, so obviously I don’t condone it,” centrist Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said of the disruptions.
- Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) told Axios: “I think it was a big mistake … I’m an old school traditional type guy, I think we should be treating the president with deference. So I think it was inappropriate.”
- Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), in a post on X, lamented what he called a “sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance” and told Axios: “I don’t think that’s the way forward.”
Zoom in: It’s not just about decorum and norms. Some Democrats argued that the disruptive lawmakers failed on the messaging front as well.
- Golden told Axios: “If anyone is thinking that it was an effective strategy, they’re probably in an echo chamber. My take is that the average American thought the optics were pretty bad.”
- “It would be a compliment to call it a strategy,” said another centrist House Democrat, pointing to online photoshops of the signs members held up.
- The lawmaker also criticized colleagues who refused to applaud even Trump’s guests: “Not standing for Trump would have been a fine strategy, but you need to separate him from the kid with cancer.”
- Several House Democrats noted that most of the disruptors were mostly progressives from safe districts — arguing that swing-district voters were turned off by their outbursts.
Yes, but: Some progressives are training their fire on leadership, arguing that a lack of top-down coordination left rank-and-file lawmakers to develop their own tactics.
- Even before the speech, “there was definitely frustration about lack of guidance [or a] plan,” said one progressive lawmaker.
- Said another: “People are super pissed that we didn’t get more direction from leadership.”
- Leadership had urged members to attend the speech, bring guests negatively impacted by DOGE and not use props: “I actually believe that what happened yesterday — the leader did not want that,” said the centrist Democrat.
What to watch: Some Democrats aren’t ruling out voting for Rep. Dan Newhouse’s (R-Wash.) resolution to censure Green for “breach of proper conduct” when it comes up Thursday.
- Golden and Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) told Axios they are undecided on the measure.
- The centrist House Democrat who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Axios: “What [Green] did was inappropriate — and he became the story, not the price of eggs.”
- But other centrists argued there is a partisan double-standard at play: “I will vote against censure because the other side was equally or more misbehaved,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas).
Editor’s note: This article was updated with comment from Rep. Tom Suozzi.
