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.”
“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.
“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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