Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) said he was carrying out the will of people in his district when he ripped a sign away from a Democratic lawmaker during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
Gooden’s viral moment occurred when Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) held up a sign reading, “This is not normal” as Trump entered the House chamber last Tuesday. This prompted the Republican congressman to rip the sign out of her hand as Trump passed the two. When asked about the moment, Gooden explained that he felt that Stansbury was disrespecting not just the president but “all of Congress and the American people.”
“And in that moment, I thought, ‘You know what, she’s right,’ this is not normal in the fact that these Democrats support transgender surgeries for children,” Gooden said on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus. “They support open borders. They support lawless cities. I thought, ‘You know, she’s right about that, but it’s wrong to disrespect President Trump.’ And I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll just carefully toss it.’ And I did.”
Gooden added that he has since been thanked by people in Texas. At a country club on Friday, people told him, “You did what we wanted to do,” he added. Gooden also said that people in New York have thanked him.
ANDY HARRIS CONTENDS AL GREEN BROKE ‘ALL DECORUM’ WITH CONGRESSIONAL OUTBURSTS
Gooden said that it is “very difficult” to work with “just about” any Democratic lawmakers, though he did acknowledge that Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) is “reasonable.” Gooden also argued that Rep. Al Green (D-TX) is a lawmaker that voters do not want to see making “a fool of himself” in Congress, adding that he is “proud” to have voted to censure the Texas Democrat.
Stansbury said her sign was intended to be “an SOS to the world” and suggested she achieved her intent. She also argued Gooden taking her sign was an example of her “living in MAGAland.”