Rep. Al Green (D-TX) shouts out as U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Via Reuters
Green, who represents a district from Houston, has previously filed articles of impeachment against Trump.
His ejection came three years after two Republican House members, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, repeatedly interrupted President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address.
Neither of those women were ejected during the speech.
“I’ll accept the punishment,” Green said after his removal. “It’s worth it to let people know that there’s some of us who are going to stand up to against this president’s desire to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”
Green told NBC News after his removal that it “triggered something” in him when Trump spoke about receiving a “mandate” from his election in November.
“Because he doesn’t have a mandate, and he doesn’t have a mandate to cut health care from poor people,” Green said.
Asked if he had planned to heckle Trump, Green said, “I knew that I was, that I was a person of conscience, as am I, and I knew that the president has done things that I think we cannot allow to continue.”
“This whole budget that he has is one that is going to cause Medicaid to be cut,” the lawmaker said.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 4, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
After Green was ejected, Trump took aim at the lawmaker’s fellow Democrats, who listened to him in silence.
“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, nothing I can do,” Trump said.
“I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded,” the president said. “And these people sitting right here will not clap will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.”
A number of House Democrats walked out of the House chamber during Trump’s speech, after Green was removed. Before that, some Democrats stood with their backs to the president.
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