It wasn’t just Republicans who shook their heads at Democratic lawmakers’ stunts during President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night speech.
“Very unhappy” Democratic party leaders called in about a dozen members of their party to a “come to Jesus meeting” on Thursday morning over protest tactics that went beyond the usual outfit coordination and refusals to clap, according to a senior House official who spoke with Axios.
The three most senior House Democratic leaders—Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar—reportedly gathered a group of disruptors including Reps. Jasmine Crockett, Maxine Dexter, Maxwell Frost and Melanie Stansbury.
(The Daily Beast has reached out to the offices of Crockett, Dexter, Frost and Stansbury for comment.)
“It doesn’t surprise me leadership is very upset,” a House Democrat told Axios anonymously. “They gave specific instructions not to do that... So you’ve got to put the hammer down.”
Another source familiar with the meeting, however, said that the rebel lawmakers were “not getting yelled at,” adding that it was a “consultative process.”
“We understand the pressure they are under,” the source said. “They are not being talked to like they are children. We are helping them understand why their strategy is a bad idea.”
In a letter to colleagues ahead of Trump’s speech, Jeffries argued that it was “important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.”
But members of the caucus still presented an array of stunts to protest Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, including placards, paddles, noisemakers and walk-outs.
Early into the president’s 99-minute-long speech, Democratic Rep. Al Green was kicked out for yelling that the president had “no mandate” to cut funding for Medicaid and refusing to heed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s orders to “maintain decorum.”
Several Democratic lawmakers like Stansbury held up signs with protest messages, while others like Crockett, Dexter, and Frost (pictured above) walked out as Trump spoke.
Trump and the White House blasted the behavior.
“This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, 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,” Trump said after Green was kicked out of the chamber.
In a chaotic vote on Thursday, the House elected 224-198 to censure Green over the incident in a rare formal rebuke. Ten Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure.
