When President Donald Trump delivered his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, all four Democrats in New Hampshire’s federal delegation were sitting in the House chamber.
Literally.
According to CNN, Democrats in the audience executed an organized protest against the president that even some members of their own party now admit was counterproductive.
“House and Senate Democratic leaders didn’t join the escort committee for the president. Dems turned their back on him when he entered the chamber and didn’t shake his hand,” reported CNN’s Manu Raju. “They didn’t applaud virtually anything. Several walked out in the middle of the speech.”
That includes Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, as well as Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas, all of New Hampshire.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) sits looking at her phone as Republicans cheer during President Donald Trump’s speech on March 4, 2025.
Democrats’ refusal to stand and applaud was particularly notable when Trump was honoring average Americans impacted by public policy decisions, such as the mother of Laken Riley. Riley was killed by an illegal immigrant released by law enforcement after being arrested for theft. (Both Hassan and Shaheen voted against the Laken Riley Act last year, before flip-flopping and backing it in January.)
Democrats also remained seated when Trump gave a shoutout to 19-year-old Payton McNabb, a female athlete seriously injured by a male competing on a girl’s volleyball team. The same when Trump announced he was naming a wildlife refuge after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl raped and strangled to death by two illegal aliens in Texas.
But the moment that elicited the most anger was when congressional Democrats refused to stand in support of DJ Daniels, a 13-year-old child who’s been fighting brain cancer for six years and whose lifelong dream is to be a law enforcement officer. At Trump’s behest, Secret Service Director Sean Curran made Daniels an honorary member of the Secret Service as Republicans stood and cheered.
The refusal of Democrats to join them left many on both sides of the aisle in shock.
“The behavior of Democrats last night was completely disgraceful and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the American public. It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses in that beautiful chamber,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt Wednesday morning.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) wasn’t happy with his fellow Democrats’ behavior, either.
“A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance,” he posted on social media. “It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message.”
Dan Turrentine, a longtime Democrat and co-host of the popular Morning Meeting on the 2Way platform said, “It was embarrassing to be a Democrat last night.”
“It was a disgrace that they would not show some humanity for the child, for the man who got into West Point, which is just an amazing accomplishment,” Turrentine said. Like many Democrats, the day after, he worries his party is veering farther from the views of average Americans.
“I think the bottom line is our leadership has no clothes,” Turrentine said. “We need to get our head screwed back on. Hopefully, last night was the bottom of the barrel, and we will start the march back.”
Several Granite State politicos, including Democrats, told NHJournal on background they were surprised that Shaheen and Pappas in particular would be part of such a strategy.
Goodlander, who only moved back to New Hampshire a few months before entering the race for Congress, was one of a handful of Democratic women wearing pink in protest against Trump.
Asked about their behavior Tuesday night and their participation in the Democrats’ protest, Goodlander, Hassan, Pappas and Shaheen all refused to comment.
When Leavitt, a native of Atkinson, N.H., was asked about the behavior of her home state’s delegation, she responded with two words: “Cry babies.”
Meanwhile, the fallout continues.
And The Hill quoted an anonymous Democratic strategist:
“He owned us. He made us look like what we are: f‑‑‑ing buffoons.”
