Dem lawmakers plan unprecedented 'break with tradition' in response to major Trump address
Source: Raw Story
February 18, 2026 9:28AM ET
Last year, President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address since retaking the White House was met with vocal opposition from Democratic lawmakers, but next week on Tuesday, Democrats have a new plan to push back against the president with an unprecedented “break with tradition,” The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Last March, Democratic lawmakers were seen sporting signs with labels like “False” and “Save Medicaid” to protest Trump’s first State of the Union since retaking office, and Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was ejected from the chamber after interrupting the president’s address. This year, however, Democrats plan to take a new approach: a “substantial number” of Democratic lawmakers plan to skip the event entirely and host an alternative event, a “People’s State of the Union,” the Times reported.
“He’s made a mockery of the State of the Union speech and he doesn’t deserve an audience,” said Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT), the Times reported. “He’s going to tell 40 different lies, call Democrats names; he’s going to paper over his corruption, and I don’t feel like what he’s doing dignifies having Democrats there to cloak the speech in a veneer of respectability.”
The alternative event – organized in part by the progressive organization MoveOn – is planned to take place simultaneously with Trump’s address and be held at the National Mall near the Capitol.
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/state-of-the-union-2675280304/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Democrat sitting in the thrones behind him. It'll be JD (watch the fumes make his eye liner run) and Speaker Johnson praying for deliverance from the toxic fumes.
alleged that when Democrats basically did that last year, it didn't go over well (which is why I didn't bother using that for the OP as some of the terms used in the characterization were insulting).
From the NYT -
Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, was ejected from the chamber after disrupting President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last year.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
By Annie Karni
Reporting from Washington
Feb. 18, 2026 Updated 8:17 a.m. ET
Democrats knew in real time last year that they had bungled their response to President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, making themselves a distraction rather than offering a cohesive message of resistance to his policies.
Representative Al Green, a liberal septuagenarian from Texas, was ejected from the chamber (and later censured) after disrupting the speech with a cane-waving tirade. The paddles that some Democrats waved with short messages on them — “Save Medicaid,” “Musk Steals” and one that just read “False” — were widely panned as a hokey and incoherent response. It was all out of step with the sober, centrist counter to Mr. Trump that party leaders had wanted to project that night.
They’re trying something different on Tuesday, when Mr. Trump is scheduled to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term. A substantial number of Democrats are planning to boycott the speech and attend an alternative event, a rally called the “People’s State of the Union,” which will take place on the National Mall near the Capitol.
The event, which is being coordinated by the left-wing advocacy group MoveOn and MeidasTouch, a progressive media company, will feature Democratic lawmakers speaking with people who have been negatively affected by Mr. Trump’s economic and health care policies, as well as federal workers who lost their jobs and immigrants who have been targeted by the Trump administration. It will be hosted by the liberal political commentators Joy Reid and Katie Phang.
(snip)
So let's see how some alternate programming works for us to tell people what we are FOR and what we plan to DO.
All of the 'career' politicians who claim to 'honor respect and decorum' were suddenly seen looking at their shoes and wondering if they remembered to flush before they left their own office there on Capitol Hill.
THAT was the end of 'HONOR AND RESPECT' for tradition - because there was that 'black guy' up there - and just who does he think he is.........
THANKS, MITCH (AKA - McTurtle) - what a fine legacy you've left.
Katie follows me on threads! 
Elayne Boosler, Marsha White, Julie Brown. . . I'm not DU's cup of tea but I'm definitely theirs.
I never thought I would be in this dark of a 'place' in America . . . where I spend more time teaching other Black Women survival skills and the old ways of sustenance. IE - Canning food, preserving food, bow hunting, rifle hunting, how skin a rabbit, etc. etc. When we say we are resting . . .
We mean we are joined in community in survival of the regime.
My brother said "You women are the militias we heard about in the 80's and 90's".
I love that for us! 
I think Senator Murphy is being extremely optimistic.
and apparently it didn't go over well with the public at the time. See what I posted upthread here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3618251
CBS? 
Nice thought, but unless it reaches citizens of this country it's only political theater.
I like the "Epstein mask" idea better, but that's only my opinion.
to him. And thanks for posting this! 
... full of taunts and lies that never get challenged by the press. Democrats aren't given a fair chance to answer his lies anyway, so why should our representatives even attend? Probably some Dems will attend Chump's SOTU, but I love this idea of an alternate and truthful version in a different venue.
Maybe it will get some airplay on broadcast news.....
As my Millennial nieces and nephews (who are in their 30s and 40s) say - "TV is for 'old people'". 
They may have a (flat screen) "television" in the house, but it is connected to some set top cable box or Fire stick or Roku, or equivalent and/or the TV itself is loaded with apps that stream traditional "television" programming (as long as the household has access to the internet), and far too much more (many requiring subscriptions)! 
