Dems Displayed Their Soullessness At Trump’s Speech

THE CAPITOL — Democrats went into President Donald Trump’s speech to the joint session of Congress promising theatrics. But, amid Trump’s speech detailing major reforms and honoring Americans victimized by far-left policies, the American people saw Democrats devolve into the ice-cold soullessness one has come to expect from a party — and group of people — grasping for relevance.

They refused to stand for the families of those brutalized and murdered by illegals, like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray. They would not stand for the family of Corey Comperatore, the father who died saving his family’s lives by protecting them from gunfire at the campaign rally where Trump was shot. They refused to acknowledge Payton McNabb, a girl who suffered a traumatic bran injury when a male who claimed to be female ruthlessly spiked a volleyball into her face, ending her chances at a college volleyball career.

And they could not even bring themselves to stand for D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor, whom Trump made an honorary U.S. Secret Service agent during his speech, about which he was clearly elated.

Democrats’ allies in the corporate media piled on, too, with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow condemning the Trump administration. A soulless Maddow attempted to frame the recognition from Trump as taking advantage of Daniel, saying, “For the record — and this is disgusting — the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who thus far survived pediatric cancer, as if the president had something to do with that.”

“This is my fifth such speech to Congress. And once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there’s absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy, or to make them stand, or smile, or applaud. Nothing I can do,” Trump said during his speech. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations — or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it, no matter what … It’s very sad and it just shouldn’t be this way.”

As my colleague Jordan Boyd pointed out, “Democrats protest Trump’s agenda because it forces them to celebrate America’s wins.”

The only time some Democrats did cheer was for the prolonging of war.

If anyone had any confusion about moral authority of the Democrats before Trump’s speech, it is unlikely to persist any longer after their antics Tuesday night.

The Democrats threatened to disrupt the speech with walkouts, pocket Constitutions, egg cartons, noise makers, and other props. It is not far-fetched, either, to have anticipated Democrats partaking in bizarre theater-kid activities reminiscent of Gov. Tim Walz’s fruity kicks and spirit fingers during the campaign, or synchronized singing and chanting.

However, what we got was an old man shouting and pointing a cane, a couple Democrats holding weak signs about Elon Musk, and some pantsuit color coordination.

An imaginative Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., even brought a white board to update her jeering during the speech.

But the highest level of theatrics at the Capitol was from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who stood up close to the beginning of Trump’s speech shaking his cane and yelling about how Trump did not have a “mandate to cut Medicaid.”

Green was first drowned out by chants of “USA! USA! USA!” before swiftly being removed from the chamber by the House Sergeant-at-Arms to the raucous cheers of Republicans, and a standing ovation from Vice President J.D. Vance.

When confronted by The Federalist about whether yelling during a speech was the best way to make his point, Green, apparently without a sense of irony, said, “It is the best way to get it across to a person who uses his incivility against our civility.”

He added that he is “willing to suffer whatever punishment is available” for breaking decorum rules, and that he is still working on articles of impeachment against Trump.

There were some “walkouts” as well, but no one really noticed them. They were not coordinated, but clearly planned as random members of Congress, like Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., posted clearly prewritten statements about how they were too overwhelmed to listen to the speech.

As White House Communications Director Steven Cheung replied to Kamlager-Dove, “nobody even noticed or cared. You’re as relevant as a used Zyn pouch.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., also walked out with and posted a pre-written statement, but given the timing, it appears she was unable to cope with the honor given to Daniel, as her post was made three minutes after the 13-year-old joined the ranks of the Secret Service as an honorary member.

The Democrats do not seem to know what to do with themselves, and post-speech polling shows that their petty protestations are not doing anything to move the needle.

A CNN poll showed that 69% of people had a “very positive” or “somewhat positive” view of the speech, and a CBS poll showed that 76% of Americans approved of the address.

Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.