In the longest address of its kind before Congress in recent memory, President Trump laid out his policy objectives on the economy, immigration, foreign policy & other topics. He was repeatedly critical of Democrats & his predecessor, Joe Biden. One Democratic congressman was escorted out of the House chamber after heckling Trump, and the Democratic Party's response delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) largely discussed how her party differs with Trump on economic and foreign policy issues.Read NPR's fact-check of President Trump's speech.This episode: political correspondent Sarah McCammon, White House correspondent Asma Khalid, and political correspondent Susan Davis.The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover politics. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. And I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. It is 1147 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. And earlier tonight, President Trump gave a joint address to Congress.
As soon as the president arrived in the House chamber, the tone and tenor of things was noticeably different than many previous similar speeches. Republicans gave Trump a standing ovation and chanted USA as he approached the lectern. Some Democrats skipped the event altogether, and those who were there were largely silent and seated. That is, until the speech started.
Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.
So that was early on in Trump's speech when House Speaker Mike Johnson directed the sergeant at arms to remove Congressman Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, from the chamber for interrupting Trump after Trump said he and Republicans had won a mandate to govern. This was quite a moment, wasn't it?
Yeah, look, I don't think that interruptions of the president during a speech like this, a State of the Union or a joint address, are that atypical anymore. I think going back to Barack Obama's presidency where Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina very famously shouted, you lie at him. And that was a moment that was seen as sort of breaking with historical decorum.
But I got to say, ever since then, it's almost been a bit of a feature of these events to have some element of the minority party, for lack of a better word, heckle, where I think that Al Green took it to a new level was he refused to stop, that he interrupted the proceedings and actually led to the sergeant at arms, which is sort of the law enforcement body of the House of Representatives, to remove a congressman.
I can't say that's never happened before, but in my recollection, at least of the modern era, I can't recall any instance of that are happening. Sometimes there's been protesters up in the galleys that have been taken out by security. But for a member of Congress to disrupt was a bit of a surprise.
I would also note that Al Green is someone who has been a very loud Trump critic since his first term. He was one of the first lawmakers to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump in his first term. So it didn't necessarily surprise me that he was the type of lawmaker leading that kind of charge.
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