‘He Was Belligerent’: House Speaker Explains Why He Booted Democrat From Trump’s Speech

House Speaker Mike Johnson found himself banging the gavel more than usual during President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to Congress. But despite several Democrat disruptions, Johnson gave Trump high marks for his record-setting speech.

“The president had a great night. I thought it was one of his best speeches, maybe the best he’s ever done,” Johnson said Wednesday morning. “It was a long speech, but he could have gone much longer touting all wins he’s had already. Most presidents don’t accomplish that much in four years.”

Johnson spoke with a group of conservative social media influencers, including The Daily Signal, to share his perspective from the dais behind Trump. The president’s speech, which set a record at 1 hour, 40 minutes for an address to Congress, detailed his administration’s actions over the past 44 days.

As House speaker, Johnson was responsible for keeping order among the more than 500 members of Congress who attended. At one point, Johnson found himself calling on the sergeant-at-arms to remove Democrat Rep. Al Green of Texas.

“He was belligerent. He wouldn’t shut his mouth. He was so disrespectful,” Johnson said of the cane-waving Green. “This is the president of the United States, for crying out loud, it doesn’t matter if he’s from the other party. We never did that to Joe Biden.”

A poll conducted by CNN after Trump’s speech found that 80% of respondents viewed Green’s interruption as inappropriate behavior.

While it was the most notable outburst on the part of Democrats, several members held placards, wore outfits, or walked out in protest.

Prior to the speech, Johnson said he warned Trump about the Democrats’ antics, and the two men discussed what to do when things got out of hand.

“I couldn’t bang every single person out of order because we would’ve been there all night. They wanted to disrupt his speech,” Johnson said. “The president and I talked about this before it all began, and I said, ‘Sir, there’s going to be signs, there might be noisemakers. They might throw things. But why don’t you ignore as much of it as you can because their whole point is to get attention and to distract.’”

Johnson likened the Democrats’ behavior to an angry town-hall meeting. He expressed dismay that Democrats refused to applaud the invited guests Trump recognized for accomplishments like the capture of the alleged mastermind of the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members.

“We’ve crossed all barriers now, and there’s hardly any traditions that are respected anymore,” Johnson said, adding that such occasions might turn into “a UFC fight if we don’t know some rules.”

The post ‘He Was Belligerent’: House Speaker Explains Why He Booted Democrat From Trump’s Speech appeared first on The Daily Signal.