Donald Trump’s state of the union address descended into chaos in the US Congress, with one representative kicked out just minutes into the speech.
The US president delivered his 108-minute speech last night, the longest ever state of the union address in at least 60 years.
The nearly two-hour speech was packed with drama, including heckling and a protest by Congress Democrats.
Even before Trump took to the podium, tension was in the air as over 70 Democrats announced they would boycott the speech.
Around a dozen representatives walked out in the middle of the message, which the president delivers at the start of the year.
Trump started his speech with: ‘Our nation is back.’
However, instead of calling for unity in the US, Trump’s words appeared to sow division as he hit out at immigrants.
At one point, Trump claimed the Somali community in the US have ‘pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer,’ which sparked a protest from the Democratic Minnesota lawmaker Ilhan Omar.
‘That’s a lie! You’re a lier,’ she shouted from the bench.
One lawmaker, Democrat Al Green from Texas who is a vocal opponent of Trump’s, was escorted out just minutes into the speech after holding a sign saying ‘Black people aren’t apes’ following the president’s racist post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The speech descended into a shouting match between the POTUS and Democrats protesting his inflammatory remarks.
Trump accused those trying to block the controversial immigration deportations of being ‘murderers’ and that they should be ‘ashamed of yourselves,’ leading to an uproar among the Democrats.
Both Omar and Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan representative, shouted ‘You’re killing Americans’ at the president, while Republicans yelled support for Trump’s immigration policies.
Green told CNN after he was kicked out: ‘I wanted the president to see it, and he saw it, and I told him, Black people are not apes, and for him to do what he did was racist, and he knows it. But sometimes we have to let him know in the public that we know it.’
Trump was left seething when Democrats refused to stand up after the president asked everyone to stand up if they agreed with his statement that ‘the first duty of the American government is to ‘protect citizens, notillegal aliens.’
‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ Trump shouted at those refusing his request, adding that he also wants to ‘end deadly sanctuary cities,’ referring to the US cities where people are not asked about their immigration status, including Chicago.
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