Democratic lawmakers on Sunday expressed disappointment at their party’s uncoordinated response to President Trump’s address to Congress last week, criticizing a colleague who staged a one-man protest during the speech by standing up and repeatedly shouting, “No mandate.”
The party’s leadership urged its members last week to stage a solemn and staid protest during Mr. Trump’s Tuesday speech, which was televised to nearly 37 million viewers. But Representative Al Green of Texas heckled the president and eventually was escorted out of the chamber.
The criticisms aimed at Mr. Green come as congressional Democrats debate how much to obstruct Mr. Trump’s agenda. With government funding set to expire after midnight Friday, Democrats must decide whether they will vote for legislation to avert a shutdown or refuse to do so while Mr. Trump is defunding and dismantling Congressionally approved federal programs.
On Sunday news shows, five Democratic lawmakers, including two progressives, made roundabout criticisms of Mr. Green. They pointed to the backlash his protest generated from both Republican and nonpartisan voters, as well as the media attention it created, which they saw as a distraction to Democrats’ messaging against Mr. Trump’s policies.
“That was a strategic mistake as well as something that just is not appropriate for the decorum of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Representative Tom Suozzi, Democrat of New York, said on CBS. Mr. Suozzi, whose district voted for Mr. Trump in 2024, was one of 10 Democrats who voted with Republicans to formally censure Mr. Green on Thursday. A censure is one of the highest forms of reprimand in the House.
Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, said on ABC that Democrats’ “lack of coordinated response” was “a mistake” and that his party should have focused on how the Republican plan to slash government spending may lead to cuts on Medicaid.
“That, to me, is the winning case to make,” he said.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, who delivered her party’s response to Tuesday’s address, acknowledged on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Mr. Green’s outburst was the result of “so much frustration” with the Trump administration.
But Ms. Slotkin quickly added that her approach differs strongly from Mr. Green’s.
“We can’t just be against something,” said Ms. Slotkin, a moderate Democrat who won in November in a state that Mr. Trump carried. “We have to be for something.”
Those lawmakers’ comments largely echoed the views of the Democratic leadership, which had hoped that a soberly delivered response on pocketbook and health care issues would become the news instead of Mr. Green’s dissent.
When pressed about Mr. Green’s protest, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the House minority leader, on Wednesday said that “the vast majority of Democrats showed restraint, listened to what the president had to say and of course we strongly disagree.”
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate minority leader, said on Wednesday that his party needed to focus on delivering messages around economic issues such as rising costs of food, housing and gas, and suggested that Mr. Green’s form of protest was not “the best way.”
Even Mr. Green’s progressive colleagues in Washington remained critical of him on Sunday.
Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey said on CNN that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle needed to hold themselves to a higher standard of decorum. Mr. Kim said he did not approve of “that type of behavior” and compared Mr. Green’s response to that of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia. Ms. Greene, a far-right firebrand, routinely interrupted former President Joseph R. Biden’s speeches to Congress.
Representative Ro Khanna of California went further and told Fox News that Tuesday’s scattered response was “not a good look” for Democrats and the fallout from Mr. Green’s behavior was “a distraction” from Democrats’ economic messaging.
“You can vigorously disagree as I do but still respect some of the institutions of our country and some of our traditions,” Mr. Khanna said.
On Thursday, Mr. Green defended his behavior and made the case for Democrats to engage in “righteous indignation and righteous incivility” in the face of Mr. Trump’s language, tactics and attempts to circumvent Congress.
“There comes a time when you cannot allow the president’s incivility to take advantage of our civility,” he said on the House floor after the censure vote, adding, “It is time for us to take that stand.”
Mr. Green, who is Black, also put his protest in the context of the civil rights movement.
“I remember what it took to get me in this House — I’m not here because I’m so smart,” he said. “I’m here because people made great sacrifices, and it was incivility, it was disruption.”
Maya C. Miller contributed reporting.
