On Wednesday, Congressman Al Green spoke to a packed house of NAACP members in Austin about being censured by the House for protesting Trump, and how ‘We the People’ will need to defend democracy and the Constitution. He also criticized the Democrats for failing to keep their promises when they had power.
I wrote about his speech for Austin Free Press:
U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said he didn’t intend to shout back at President Donald Trump during Trump’s speech to Congress earlier this month — but would do it again, despite the consequences, including receiving numerous death threats and being censured by his House colleagues.
Speaking to a packed room at Austin’s AFL-CIO labor hall near the Capitol this week, Green said he wanted to make clear to the president that voters didn’t give him a mandate to cut Medicaid or Social Security. He urged the public to engage in peaceful protest to protect those and other services.
“I want you to know that if the Congress won’t act and if the court can’t act because (Trump) won’t abide by the rulings of the court…there is but one remedy left,” Green said. “We the people. We the people will have the last word…this country was built on we the people. The country wasn’t built on DOGE,” Green said, referring to Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. “The country won’t be destroyed by DOGE.”
In addition to being censured by the House, which voted mostly along party lines to reprimand the 77-year-old Democrat, Green said he could face further punishment. He said Republicans are trying to strip him of all his committee assignments.
“I have said that I would suffer the consequences,” Green said. “I didn’t say I would like it. I didn’t say I would agree with it. I don’t agree with what happened. I don’t agree with the sanction imposed, but I’m prepared to suffer the consequences.”
Read more at Austin Free Press.
It did not make it into the article due to space limitations, but Green made a point of saying it’s unfair to blame Black people, LGBTQ+ folks or any other vulnerable group for Kamala Harris’ and the Democrats’ losses on election day when the Democrats failed to deliver on so many promises to these groups.
