Rep. Al Green (D-TX) compared himself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks after he once again got himself booted from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Green was removed from the address after he protested with an all-caps sign reading “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES.” The sign was aimed at a now-deleted social media post on Trump’s Truth Social account which spoofed “The Lion King” with Democrats’ faces put on the characters, including Michelle and Barack Obama as primates. A senior official told news outlets a staffer “erroneously made the post.”
“Now there are people who believe that I should not take a stand such as this,” Green told reporters outside the House chambers, according to Fox News. “There are others who have taken stands, and they, too have been vilified. Dr. King went to jail for taking a stand. Rosa Parks went to the jail for taking a stand.”
“Sometimes you have to take a stand. Rosa Parks was alone when she was arrested in a racist Southern town, but she was there. There are times when it is, on some issues, better to stand alone than not stand at all,” he continued. “I stood alone, but I assure you, I will do it again because you must know that there are people who will take a stand against his insidious behavior.”
Green was escorted out of the address peacefully, although House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) tried to rip the sign out of Green’s grasp.
Several Republicans at the address tried to block Green’s sign from the cameras, including Reps. Pat Fallon (R-TX) and John McGuire (R-VA) and Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Roger Marshall (R-KS).
GOP lawmakers chanted “USA, USA” as Green was escorted out of the chamber.
Outside of the event, Green told reporters: “We must take a stand against this level of discrimination.”
“I wanted him to know, and I wanted to see it and hear it up close, but judging from the expression on his face, he got the message,” Green said. “He saw it. He got the message.”
Green added that “the consequences were of no consequence to me.”
“Dr. King did not allow the consequence to prevent him from going to Birmingham, and he went to jail,” Green said. “Rosa Parks did not allow the consequences to prevent her from taking a seat on the bus. That’s where we are now. We are back to a point where people have to take a stand. I’m just a person who has done it.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the outlet that Green is “not a serious person, which is why he does unserious things.”
“Al Green is a stone cold loser who beclowns himself on a daily basis and demeans the seat he occupies in Congress,” Cheung said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
