He was the first Democrat to request dismissal during the first mandate of President Donald Trump in the White House and now it is believed that the representative to Green is the first legislator in modern history that will be expelled from a joint session of the Congress or a speech of the state of the Union, according to a presidential historian.
The 78 -year -old Texas congressman was escorted outside the Chamber of the Chamber in the Capitol building on Tuesday night by the sergeant of the House of Representatives after he stood up and shook his cane with Trump, and refused to obey the order of the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson to sit down and refrain from interrupting the speech of the president shouting criticism.
“I can’t think of another legislator who is eliminated. In modern history, I can say with a certain level of confidence that the answer is not,” said presidential historian Mark Updegrove, CEO of the foundation of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The representative Al Green is eliminated from the Chamber when President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress in the Capitol in Washington, on March 4, 2025.
WIN MCNAMEE/AP
Before Trump’s speech, the members of the Caucus of the House of Representatives asked the Sergeant of Arms to take measures against any member of the Congress that violated the rules of the Chamber during the speech.
“The president’s speech to the joint session of the Congress tonight is a constitutional obligation, not a secondary show for the Democrats to use the noisy, make threats, throw things or interrupt in another way,” said Freedom Caucus in a statement published in social networks. “Our colleagues do not realize that Heckler’s veto will not be tolerated. He will be censored. We hope that the Arms and Capitol police take the appropriate measures against the members of the congress or other people who violate the rules of the Chamber.”
On Wednesday morning, the intransigent group said they would censor the green, but the moderate representative of the Republican Party Dan Newhouse of Washington defeated them. Newhouse formally introduced a measure on the floor of the camera to censor Green, which is expected to vote on Thursday.
Freedom caucus members include representative Lauren Bobert, R-Colorado.
During the statements of the State of the Union of President Joe Biden between 2022 and 2024, Boebert and the representative Marjorie Taylor Green, Republican of Georgia, told the former president. During the state of the state of the biden union in 2023, Greene stood up and shouted “liar” several times to the former president, but was not escorted out of the Chamber of the Chamber.
Updegrove, an ABC news collaborator, said that representative Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, shouted “you lie” during former President Barack Obama’s speech in a joint session of the Congress on Medical Care. At that time, the House of Representatives, with the Democrats with the majority, voted to rebuke Wilson, who later issued an apology to Obama.
“Joe Wilson’s episode was the introduction of greater hostility in Congress, at least in modern times,” Updegrove said.
President Donald Trump pronounces a speech in a joint session of the Congress, in the Chamber of the United States Capitol Chamber in Washington, on March 4, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
After attacking Trump, shouting: “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green was removed from the camera on Tuesday night. He later told ABC News that he would appreciate any consequence of his interruption, saying he was “following the desires of conscience.”
“There are times when it is better to be alone than not being at all,” Green said.
Green doubled his protest for Trump’s speech on Wednesday, saying that he had the opportunity, “he would do it again.”
“I am not angry with the speaker. I am not angry with the officers. I am not upset with the members who are going to bring the motions or resolutions to the sanction. I will suffer the consequences,” Green told ABC News.
Green added: “What I did was from my heart. People are suffering. And I was talking about Medicaid. I not only said you didn’t have a mandate. I said you didn’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid.”
Green said he has not spoken with Democratic leadership about his outbreak on Tuesday night.
It is not the first time that Green, who has represented the ninth district of the Texas Congress since 2005, has been a thorn on Trump’s side.
In May 2017, Green presented the first articles of political trial against Trump, citing the dismissal of the director of the FBI James Comey. In July 2019, he requested Trump’s accusation again, citing the president’s attack against four Democratic congressmen. The camera voted for the Table Green resolution, killing it effectively.
And last month, Green announced on the floor of the Congress that he intends to present again the articles of political trial against Trump, citing the president’s suggestion that the United States will take over the Gaza Strip.
“The movement to accuse the president has begun,” Green said on the floor of the house. “I get up to announce that I will bring articles of political trial against the president of the amazing and evil facts made facts.”
In February 2024, Green temporarily left his hospital bed in a wheelchair after undergoing intestinal surgery to vote against the accusation of Alejandro Mayorkas, led by the Republicans, then the Biden National Secretary of National Security, for his handling of a crisis on the southern border. The camera ended up voting 214–216 so as not to dismiss Mayorkas.
“I wanted to do everything I can because I know the Major Kids. He is a good and decent man and did not want to see his tarnished reputation,” Green said at that time.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Green moved to Houston, Texas, in the 1970s to attend the Faculty of Law of Thurgood Marshall, where he obtained a law title, according to a biography published on his website. Later he founded and co-scheduled the law firm Green, Wilson, Dewberry and Fitch.
Green also served as a peace judge for Harris County, Texas, for 26 years, retiring in 2004 to run for Congress. It also served for 10 years as president of the Houston branch of the NAACP.
During his term in Congress, Green has focused on fair housing and fair hiring practices for the poor and minorities. While he was in Congress, he has served in the Chamber Financial Services Committee and the National Security Committee, and presided over the Supervision and Investigation Subcommittee of the House of Representatives.
On his website, Green accredits his family for teaching him “fair resistance to overcome persistent injustice.”
