Stephen Colbert lashed out at top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries for urging his party to have a “silent” protest and avoid disrupting the State of the Union address, calling the move “a bold rebrand of doing jack squat.”
The Late Show host mocked the House minority leader’s encouragement for Democrats to either attend President Donald Trump’s address Tuesday night “in silent defiance” or to go to a counter event, but not to bail entirely or “make a scene” if they did attend.
“We’re not going to Donald Trump’s house,” Jeffries said last week. “He’s coming to our house. It’s my view that you don’t let anyone, ever, run you off of your block.”
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers heeded his advice, staging walkouts or holding up signs in protest of Trump’s agenda.
“For Democrats who did attend, Hakeem Jeffries urged members not to make a scene,” Colbert said. “An approach he dubbed ‘silent defiance, which I believe is a bold rebrand of doing jack squat.”
Colbert added, “As Martin Luther King once said, ‘Shhh.’” He then displayed the made-up quote and an image of the civil rights leader on the screen.
Many Democrats did protest both in and outside of the chamber throughout the State of the Union.
To kick off the address, Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, held up a sign that read, “Black people aren’t apes,” in reference to the video Trump shared online that portrayed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Trump claimed an “aide” had posted the video but refused to apologize.
Green was swiftly escorted out of the building, making it the second time he has been removed during one of Trump’s addresses.
Other Democrats to protest the event include Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, who cried out, “You have killed two Americans!” as Trump boasted about his immigration crackdown. Norma Torres, a Democrat from California, could also be sen holding up photos of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, the two U.S. citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis last month.
Some who skipped the speech addressed hundreds of protesters gathered on the National Mall during a counter-event billed as the “People’s State of the Union.”
Throughout his speech, Trump criticized Democratic lawmakers for refusing to stand or clap for him, at one point telling them, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy,” Trump said as Democrats remained seated, prompting more thunderous applause from the Republican side of the chamber.
“We’re lucky to have a country with people like this,” he then said, referring to the Republicans. “Democrats are destroying our country.”
