Politics
Some Democrats Regret Their Scattered Responses to Trump’s Speech to Congress
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.
new video loaded: Reflecting Pool Turns Green, Paint Peels After Renovation
transcript
transcript
Reflecting Pool Turns Green, Paint Peels After Renovation
Algae blooms have hit the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which underwent a $14.2 million repair project. Blue paint appeared to be chipping from the bottom.
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“The reflecting pool is greener than I have ever seen it before due to algae.” “I was expecting to see blue, but green is O.K.” “Honestly, I don’t think you can fight mother nature.”
By Julie Yoon, Jackeline Luna and Alisa Shodiyev Kaff
June 19, 2026
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., rebuked a school board in Richmond, Michigan, after some of its members tried to remove a conservative colleague for missing meetings while on military deployment to the Middle East.
Ray Stier, who received an American flag and a copy of the Congressional Record from McClain on Thursday as a commendation of his work, had been on deployment, attending board meetings remotely, but eventually lost virtual access.
That’s when the board called for his removal, citing a “disservice” caused by his absence.
“One of the board members’ family was taking to social media and putting out misinformation about myself and my wife and things that were not factually accurate and then ultimately calling for my resignation and prompting others to reach out to the district to call for my recall,” Stier recounted.
PARENTS SAY THEY’RE RUNNING FOR LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS TO FIGHT ‘POISONOUS’ CRITICAL RACE THEORY
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., left, pictured alongside Ray Stier, a school board member in Richmond, Michigan. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; office of Lisa McClain)
The moment is just the most recent clash between Republicans and school boards over policies that, in their view, are gatekeeping schools against diversity of thought and accountability.
“I think education is extremely important and vital,” McClain told Fox News Digital.
“And educators and administrators need to teach children how to think, not what to think. It’s about time that administrators begin to get held accountable for their actions. Good actions and bad actions.”
McClain’s meeting with Stier comes on the heels of a congressional hearing last week where she grilled a superintendent from Virginia over student privacy policy, probing if those policies were being unevenly applied to favor transgender students.
VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT SLAPPED WITH COMPLAINT ALLEGING NEW CLAIMS IN VIRAL TRANS LOCKER ROOM FIGHT
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Feb. 28, 2023. (Tom Williams/ CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
“The victims got a 10-day suspension and the biological female that did the filming got a one-day suspension,” McClain said, referring to an incident at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County where students had been reprimanded for filming in a locker room.
“How does that make sense?”
In Stier’s case, McClain questioned whether the board had targeted Stier on account of just his deployment overseas. Stierhad clashed with the board after learning that some of the district’s bathroom policies would have allowed fourth-grade students to use the same bathroom as transgender eighth-grade boys.
“Prior to him filling the seat, the seat was open for two months,” McClain observed. So that logical argument doesn’t exactly make sense to me; it doesn’t really hold a lot of water.”
MICHIGAN PARENT WANTS TRUMP TO ACT AFTER DAUGHTER SHARES LOCKER ROOM WITH TRANS-ATHLETE
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., left, pictured alongside Richmond, Michigan school board member Ray Stier right. (Office of Lisa McClain)
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For his own part, Stier believes his case will refocus attention on the importance of the school board and its membership.
“My goal is to continue being an advocate for the community. One of the good things that I think came out of this was that it got so much attention that some of the community members who were unaware of the dynamics that were not being brought to light,” Stier said.
California’s political watchdog commission on Thursday finalized a $31,500 fine against Gov. Gavin Newsom, alleging that the Democratic leader failed to report three dozen behested payments totaling $5.5 million mostly to support wildfire recovery by the deadline under state law.
The Political Reform Act requires elected officials to disclose payments of $5,000 or more that they solicit or direct others to give to a charitable, legislative or governmental purpose within 30 days.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission said 34 of the violations were for failing to report on time that Newsom and his staff directed outreach from companies and foundations that wanted to help after the Los Angeles wildfires to the California Fire Foundation. The nonprofit was started in 1987 by the California Professional Firefighters to support the families of fallen firefighters and communities impacted by fire.
The donations include $1 million from the Chuck Lorre Foundation and $500,000 apiece from Lockheed Martin, the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and BlackRock, among others gifts.
The governor also failed in 2024 to report on time two behested payments, totaling $100,000 from the Schmidt Family Foundation and Schwab Charitable Funds to the Institute for Local Government, a nonprofit within the League of California Cities.
The commission said the governor reported all of the payments “prior to public discovery” or contact from its enforcement division, which it considered a mitigating factor. Newsom also signed the stipulation and agreed to the fine.
Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office, said the issue involved late paperwork at a time when the governor’s staff was focused on emergency response and supporting survivors. She also underscored the fact that the reports were filed before he was contact by the FPPC.
Gallegos said the fine is unrelated to an alleged investigation into the governor and his wife by the Department of Justice, which Newsom announced this week.
Newsom alleged Monday that Trump is using the government as a political weapon to target him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Newsom announced the investigation after he learned that the FBI and Internal Revenue Service asked his associates questions about nonprofits and businesses related to the couple.
The governor’s office characterized the investigation as a fishing expedition. The Trump administration declined to comment.
A source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly, said two federal probes have been going on for about a year, and that they originated not from Washington, D.C., but from conversations between whistleblowers and federal prosecutors based in Sacramento. The probes are linked to Newsom’s former chief-of-staff, Dana Williamson, and Siebel Newsom’s taxes, the source said.
The FPPC violations mark the second time Newsom has reported payments late, which increased his penalty for the new infractions. The commission fined Newsom in 2024 for failing to timely report 18 payments totaling $14.4 million.
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