My wife couldn't believe I was able to do this, but I've watched most of Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress last night. I did so because I believe in knowing your enemy. I wanted to see how Trump came across rather than just read about his speech.
I also was curious to see how Democratic legislators acted during the speech.
How aggressive would they be in protesting what certainly would be copious amounts of lies coming out of Trump's mouth, not to mention his truthful statements about what his administration has been doing since inauguration day, naturally including the dangerous antics of Elon Musk and his merry band of DOGE'sters?
In short, Trump looked strong and Democrats looked weak.
I'm no fan of Trump, to put it mildly. But I've got to give credit to him for exhibiting a lot of energy at the age of 78. The speech set an all-time record for the longest State of the Union/joint session of Congress presidential address: 99 minutes I believe it was. Trump stood throughout. I haven't finished watching all of my DVR recording of the speech, but I didn't notice any decline in Trump's energy and enthusiasm.
The speech, which I'm sure he had little to do with the writing, was well done. When Trump was simply reading from the teleprompter, I actually didn't find him very annoying, even though I rarely agreed with what he was saying.
Meaning, while I didn't like what I was hearing, I had to give Trump some grudging respect for he and his speechwriters making a decent MAGA case for what has been done in the early days of his second term as president.
Trump also did a good job with his unscripted remarks. He's adept at both insulting his opponents, in this case Democratic members of Congress, and sounding like a talk show host, a skill he's perfected from his time on television and all the political rallies he's spoken at.
There were a lot of special guests in the chamber that Trump recognized and talked about at various points in his speech. This was a smart move. It's a typical thing to do, but not to this degree and with that level of emotion.
It was easy for me to sympathize with the female athlete who reportedly suffered a serious head injury when a transgender player on the opposing team spiked the ball into her face, and equally easy for me to feel warmth to the boy with a major medical problem whose dream is to become a policeman, and who was told by Trump that he now is a member of the Secret Service.
Of course, Trump had the advantage of being in control of the speech. Democrats struggled to find ways to protest Trump while not looking like jerks, given the solemnity of the situation. But wherever Trump goes, tradition and norms fly out the window.
So I thought it was entirely appropriate for Rep. Al Green to stand up early on, point his cane at Trump, and yell at him. That got Green kicked out. However, it was an effective move since the camera captured what Green did and it disrupted the flow of Trump's speech.
Other than that, mostly Democrats held little signs that earned this comment from a late night talk show host:
“He barked out one appalling claim after another, but don’t you worry: Democrats are getting ready to fight back with their little paddles,” said The Late Show host Stephen Colbert.
I wish Democrats had been able to come up with a unified way to protest Trump's speech. Trump has been breaking laws in his so-far mostly successful attempt to remake the federal government in his own image. Trump is acting like an authoritarian, not a president. We're barreling toward a constitutional crisis that sure seems like a break-the-glass moment where loud alarms need to sound.
Yet last night Democrats, with the exception of Rep. Green, responded to Trump with little tinkles akin to someone gently tapping with a knife on a glass to get the attention of people at a dinner party.
Here's an excerpt from a Politico story, "'Giving bingo': Democrats' silent protest against Trump falls flat."
President Donald Trump mocked Democrats who sat in front of him Tuesday night, needling them with a grin, “nothing I can say or do to make them happy.” Democrats mostly responded with silent protest — wearing pink, waving placards emblazoned with “FALSE” and “Save Medicaid.” More than a dozen walked out of his speech early, some revealing shirts that said “No Kings Live Here.”
The shambolic scene was emblematic of Democrats’ larger problem after facing a brutal election cycle that locked them out of power as they struggled to communicate in a vastly fragmented media environment. Though the official Democratic response, delivered by Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, got carried on major networks, much of what Democrats had to say didn’t play out on voters’ TVs.
“We’re all trying to get up to speed as fast as possible to take this fight right to Republicans,” said Shasti Conrad, associate Democratic National Committee chair, in an interview with POLITICO after the speech. “But there’s a little bit of a delay.”
Absent a sharper, in-the-room response, frustrated Democrats vented online, complaining that the Democrats’ signs were “giving bingo” and “not landing,” as former Joe Biden spokesperson Symone Sanders Townsend put it on X. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton added: “why did democrats go to this tbh,” while late-night host Stephen Colbert mocked Democrats for their signs, making one of his own that said: “Try doing something.”
Democrats’ protest was “very silly, and unserious, but I can’t help but feel some level of empathy for them,” said a Democratic strategist granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “I’m sure they feel like they have to do something, anything, [but] that wasn’t it.”
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