Van Orden shouts at Biden during address
Wisconsin congressman interrupts annual speech
WASHINGTON – Wisconsin freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden shouted “lies” at President Joe Biden Thursday night during a piece of Biden’s State of the Union speech in which he was critical of former President Donald Trump.
The interjection came early in the remarks, as Biden derided Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My predecessor failed in the most basic presidential duty that he owes to the American people, the duty to care,” Biden said, after which Van Orden yelled: “Lies!”
“I think that’s unforgivable,” Biden added of Trump.
After the address, Van Orden confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he was the member who yelled, saying: “If Biden thinks for a moment President Trump doesn’t care about the American people, that is a lie.” He cited Trump’s handling of the border and attacked Biden for the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Van Orden’s interjection was the latest example of the freshman Republican making a public outburst on Capitol Hill. He yelled at a group of young Senate pages over the summer for lying beneath the Capitol dome. And he later became belligerent during a White House briefing on the Israel-Hamas war, saying he was upset those leading the briefing did not talk enough about American hostages taken by Hamas militants.
Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, who frequently assails Van Orden for his behavior, was quick to criticize him. He labeled Van Orden’s behavior “unbecoming” and called on him to formally apologize to the president. “He is an unstable person,” Pocan tweeted after the address. “Certainly not capable of his job on Congress.”
Biden was critical of Trump in multiple instances throughout his speech. Though he never referred to Trump by name, Biden went after the former president for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and attempted to contrast his goals with “revenge and retribution” he associated with Trump.
Biden is likely to face Trump in November in a rematch of the 2020 election.
In a brief interview, Van Orden told the Journal Sentinel he felt it was “shameful” for Biden to “disparage President Trump. He called Biden’s address “a campaign statement that had nothing to do with the state of the union.”
Van Orden’s wasn’t the only outburst of the night.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, shouted at the president as he discussed the border, demanding he say the name of Laken Riley, a Georgia woman who was killed earlier this year. Authorities have charged an undocumented migrant in connection to her death. Biden repeated her name.
Van Orden, who wrested Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District away from Democrats in 2022, faces a re-election fight in which national Democrats have signaled plans to target the district. Democrats hope to flip the seat as they seek to regain control of the House of Representatives in November.
And his potential challengers took note of the incident.
“More of the divisive and unacceptable behavior we have come to expect from Radical Derrick Van Orden,” Stevens Point State Rep. Katrina Shankland wrote on X.
“Derrick Van Orden has once again chosen party over country and embarrassed Wisconsin in the process,” nonprofit leader Rebecca Cooke told the Journal Sentinel. “It’s clear he belongs nowhere near Congress and lacks the temperament and drive to actually get things done for our families and communities.”