House Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats have been left “embarrassed” by Rep. Al Green’s behavior after the House voted Thursday to censure the Texas congressman for disrupting President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.
Johnson joined “America’s Newsroom” after the vote to punish the lawmaker for his “disgusting” behavior during Trump’s speech to the House chamber.
“This is a really sad day for our institution,” Johnson told Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. “What Representative Al Green did in the midst of the president’s speech as our honored guest to the chamber was disrupted. He did it intentionally, as everyone saw. I gave him plenty of warnings and he refused. It was a deliberate action. It needed to be met with swift punishment. That’s the tradition of this place to maintain decorum, and so that’s what we just did.”
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“There’s a deep and rich tradition here, and it is violated,” he continued. “To our understanding and our review of history, that was the first time that any member of Congress has ever had to be removed in the middle of a presidential address, and it’s shameful.”
There had been multiple resolutions circulating among House Republicans to censure Green after the 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night for repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.
He shouted, “You have no mandate!,” at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.
Johnson had Green removed by the U.S. sergeant-at-arms.
Green remained defiant when he stopped to speak with the White House press pool on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol after being thrown out of the second floor House chamber, where Trump was speaking.
“I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn’t say to anyone, ‘don’t punish me.’ I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment,” Green said, according to the White House press pool report. “But it’s worth it 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.”
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The censure vote passed on a bipartisan basis Thursday with 10 Democrats voting to censure Green alongside Republicans.
Before the formal censure could be read out, however, Democrats upended proceedings by gathering with the Green and singing “We shall overcome.” Johnson was forced to call the House into a recess after failing multiple times to quell the protest.
“They’re embarrassed by what happened,” Johnson said. “Many of their colleagues, as you know, were holding up signs on the floor and trying to disrupt in other ways. But the leadership, Hakeem Jeffries, to his credit, he’s the leader on the Democrat side in the House. He admonished his colleagues before the event and asked them to maintain decorum.”
“We have to do that as leaders, and every member should be committed to that as well,” he continued. “It brings shame on the institution. It brought shame on them as individuals and on their party. And it’s just disgusting to me… I take no pleasure in this.”
Democrats have received a swarm of backlash for what the White House called “childish” behavior from members of the party during Trump’s historic address.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the “shameful” conduct during a press briefing on Wednesday, noting many did not applaud a child cancer survivor or acknowledge mothers of children brutally murdered by illegal immigrants.
“Last night was a very clarifying moment for our country,” Leavitt said. “The Democrats exposed themselves as the party of insanity and hate, the party that wants to put America last. They’ve allowed their Trump derangement syndrome to stop them from celebrating America and our people, and we will not allow them to forget that.”
Johnson argued the party is in “disarray,” claiming they don’t have a leader, vision or direction for the future.
“They’re flailing right now, so that’s why they resort to these antics,” he said. “They want to fight Trump. They want to fight the America First agenda. They want to fight all of us. And so they debase themselves by showing up on the House floor and acting like children. It’s sad.”
“This is an unfortunate day, and I wish we hadn’t had to go down this road.”
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
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