Much has been made of the Democrats’ heckling of President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address this week. Defenders of the president categorized the shouting and dissension, particularly from left-wing radicals Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), as rude behavior, breaking decorum, and disrespectful. Detractors of Trump will cite similar incidents over the years, including outbursts by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who heckled then-President Joe Biden, and former Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who shouted “you lie” at then-President Barack Obama.
Some Democrats were conciliatory about Omar and Tlaib’s outburst. Others defended it. Many cited the previous incidents with Boebert, Greene, and Wilson to justify “the Squad’s” behavior this week. And if you listened to much of the political discourse this week, it was regularly suggested that Republicans started this violation of decorum, with many highlighting Wilson’s “You lie!” moment as the initial crack in the presidential address decency standards. Yet, in typical liberal, Democratic, and left-wing fashion, this is not true and entirely revisionist.
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Democrats have been heckling Republican presidents since 1974. As the saying goes, you can’t spell “liberal” without “lie.”
By all retrievable historical accounts of modern presidential addresses to Congress, the first instance of rude behavior and heckling of a president appears to have occurred on Jan. 30, 1974. That is when then-President Richard Nixon would deliver (what would ultimately be) his last State of the Union speech. In the midst of the Watergate scandal, Nixon entered the House chamber, and half the Democrats in attendance refused to stand, according to former Rep. David Obey (D-WI).
“What I remember is that when Nixon walked in, about half the Democrats refused to stand,” Obey said to NBC News in 2007. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is going to look terrible on television.’ Then I discovered the House members weren’t shown on television.”
“Hisses and boos could be heard from the Democratic side of the chamber,” said Stephen Ambrose. The famed historian also claimed that when Nixon reinforced his commitment to serving out his term and that he had no intention of “walking away from the job people elected me to do,” Democrats released “groans of dismay.”
In 1975, Democrats upped their antics, this time targeting then-President Gerald Ford, who replaced Nixon after he resigned. During Ford’s first State of the Union address in 1975, Democrats walked out of the House chamber before Ford spoke in a blatant sign of disapproval and disrespect.
“I will always remember the president’s first State of the Union in 1975,” said Charles Leppert, a deputy assistant for legislative affairs in the House at the time. “I can’t recall such disrespect for the president of the United States in any other era.”
Things seemed to calm down after that. Somewhat shockingly, there do not appear to be any presidential slights or heckling episodes during the terms of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Looking at videos of some of the addresses, members of Congress regularly applaud each president as they speak. In some instances, some may not have risen, but there doesn’t appear to be the heckling or public rebuke of a president that Democrats started in 1974.
Then came President George W. Bush.
In 2004, Democrats once again returned to their rude, disruptive ways, heckling and booing Bush during his State of the Union.
The tasteless lack of decorum was repeated the following year during Bush’s first State of the Union address of his second term. Bush was reportedly booed and hissed as he delivered his speech.
Then came Joe Wilson’s moment with Obama. During Trump’s first term, there were instances of defiance and heckling, notably in 2018 and 2019, albeit not as vociferous as this week’s episode. Then there was then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ultimate sign of disrespect and complete breaking of decorum in 2020 when she stood up from her seat behind the president in the House chamber and tore up her copy of Trump’s speech.
READ IN FULL: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH
And then, it’s essentially been chaos and a reality television show ever since.
Preferably, the State of the Union would return to its form before Nixon, when members of Congress were more interested in governance than a constant folly of one-upmanship or raucous and inappropriate behavior for a presidential address. However, despite both sides participating in such antics recently, it must be emphasized that Democrats started this kind of unruliness.
Republicans took it for a long time before fighting back. Hopefully, at some point, order can be restored. But if not, don’t blame Republicans and don’t expect them to resume backing down — nor should they.