Donald Trump’s Speech Interrupted by Shouts from Al Green, Cane-Waving Texas Lawmaker Who Is Thrown Out of Capitol

President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time since his inauguration on Tuesday, March 4, and at the start of the president’s speech, Texas Congressman Al Green began shouting in protest at the President.

Green, a Democrat, waved his cane at Trump while shouting, “No mandate!”

As he continued shouting, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson twice warned, “Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir, take your seat.” Green continued to protest in response, and Johnson said, “Members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum. The Chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order.”

The Sergeant at Arms then removed Green, 77, from the building to cheers from Republicans.

Shortly after, Green spoke to reporters about the message of his protest. “I was making it clear to the President that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” he said. “I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people. And they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care,” per C-SPAN.

“I want him to know that his budget calls for deep cuts in Medicaid. He needs to save Medicaid and protect it. We need to raise the cap on Social Security,” Green, whose district includes parts of Houston and Fort Bend County, said.

Green also said he is “willing to suffer whatever punishment is available” regarding his protest. “I didn’t say to anyone, ‘Don’t punish me.’ I said, ‘I’ll accept the punishment.’ “

He reiterated that his protesting actions are “worth it.” In order “to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this President’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.”

The congressman also explained why he opted for the public protest, saying that the president is “a person who has consistently been used incivility against civility.”

Interruptions during presidential addresses to Congress have become fairly commonplace in recent years. The previously staid affair notably devolved into a shouting match in 2009, when then-President Barack Obama was presenting the health care plan that would eventually become the 2010 Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Obama was attempting to debunk some of the rumors about the plan — including one that claimed undocumented immigrants would receive benefits — when he was interrupted by Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.

“You lie!” he shouted, stunning and silencing the chamber. A week later, Congress passed a resolution officially condemning Wilson’s behavior as “disrespectful, uncivil, unacceptable and contemptible.”

Fast forward 16 years and disruptions have become a routine occurrence on the House floor.

President Joe Biden had all three of his State of the Union speeches interrupted by Republican representatives or protestors.

In 2022, he was heckled by Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert when he brought up his late son, Beau Biden, an Iraq War veteran who died of brain cancer in 2015. As Biden addressed concerns over the effects of chemical warfare on veterans’ health, Boebert yelled, “You put them there!”

The following year, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Virginia Rep. Bob Good and other Republicans interrupted to call Biden a “liar” multiple times when he spoke about proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare. During a section of the speech on fentanyl overdoses, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles also spoke up to accuse the president, shouting, “It’s your fault!”

Then, during Biden’s 2024 State of the Union, Greene interrupted a section on border security to yell “Say her name!” in reference to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed by an undocumented migrant. Biden did, in fact, say Riley’s name and also held up a “Laken Riley” pin Greene had given him.

Disruptive behavior hasn’t been limited to the Republican Party, either. In 2020, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood and tore her copy of President Trump’s speech following his State of the Union address.

“She felt ‘liberated’ … He was shredding the truth, she said, so she would shred his speech,” wrote Susan Page, author of Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power, about the moment.

“She was steaming,” Page added. “In fact, it was the one time we saw Donald Trump really get under Nancy Pelosi’s skin. She got under his skin all the time. That was the one time she did not act in the kind of disciplined way, which is usually her manner.”