Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said on Sunday that Democrats failed to portray themselves in a positive light during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
The speech last week saw several Democratic lawmakers, such as Rep. Al Green (D-TX), give public displays of protest, with Green’s verbal outburst getting him censured. Some Democratic lawmakers, like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), have been critical of the performance by their fellow Democrats, with Khanna acknowledging the party’s behavior during the speech was not “a good look.”
“We should have stood for the boy with cancer, you stand for the president of the United States out of respect for the American people,” Khanna said on Fox News’s Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream. “I agree with Sen. Fetterman that it’s really about showing our heart. You stand for the widow of the firefighter. And here’s what happens: the story should have been on President Trump. He’s talking about a balanced budget, the House Republican budget actually is adding $2.8 trillion to the deficit. We should have been talking about the Medicaid cuts. Instead, we are talking about our own behavior, and that’s a distraction from us getting out our economic message.”
Khanna also expressed concern that political division will continue within the United States, wondering what would happen if Republican lawmakers decided not to attend a future address to Congress under a Democratic president, or vice versa. As such, he argued the U.S. needs to focus on “our common goals,” and expressed hope that his fellow lawmakers will stand “respectfully” when the president arrives for a speech.
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About what the Democratic Party can do to win back voters going forward, Khanna argued the party needs to clarify to voters that they are “patriots,” and sell voters the vision that Democrats are the party that will make the country a “manufacturing superpower again.” He added that the party needs to lead on “the economic message,” claiming that some within his party are starting to recognize this.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) rebuked Democrats for their “shameful” behavior at the address to Congress, questioning if the party will be able to “explain their way out of that.” He also lamented how these speeches are meant to provide some unity between the two parties and the nations, and argued that Trump offered “many” instances when Democrats could have joined their opposing party in celebration.
