Rep. Rashida Tlaib Walked Out of SOTU When Trump Touted Kavanaugh SCOTUS Pick: ‘I Couldn’t Stand Still and Not Do Anything’

Michigan progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib explained that she walked out of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in protest after he touted the Supreme Court appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused by Dr. Christine Blaisey Ford of sexually assaulting her when she was in high school.

Speaking with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Tlaib said that the “trigger” of Kavanaugh’s name prompted her to leave the House chamber, joining several other Democratic members who left during the speech.

“Tell me about that decision and what was the tipping point for you?” Maddow asked.

“I think, you know, even the mention of Brett Kavanaugh for me is a trigger,” Tlaib explained. “Just as a woman in America, the fact that he, you know, rightfully was accused and having an incredibly strong woman come before the public and the world and tell her story of sexual assault by this person that was appointed to the Supreme Court is just — I couldn’t stand still and not do anything about it, and I needed to walk away from that.”

Maddow went on to note that Trump seemed to ad-lib a line about appointing more Supreme Court justices, not so subtly suggesting that he would be re-elected this November.

“He’s the President of the United States, a forever impeached president,” Tlaib responded moments later. “What we need to do is remove him from office. He cannot continue to lie to the American people. He cannot continue to — not only what I saw in lie after lie, but also to mislead the public and use immigrants and use people of various different faiths to try to increase fear and just use fearmongering kind of politics. Look, we’re tired of the hate rhetoric. We’re tired of divisiveness in our country.”

Watch the video above, vis MSNBC.