CNN’s Manu Raju Confronts Republican Who Yelled Out ‘Lies’ During Biden’s State of the Union

CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, caught up with the GOP House member who yelled “lies” during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday night.

“Why did you yell out the president was lying?” Raju asked Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) soon after the speech was over.

“The president should have started and ended his State of the Union address by apologizing to the American people. He’s let 8 million illegal immigrants into the country open the border. And you know he can close it. So what he said there in the State of the Union, tremendous amount of it was just flat-out fabrication,” Van Orden replied.

“You’re obviously a member of the House. Is it appropriate for you to yell out lies when the president is addressing you guys?” Raju pressed.

Van Orden hit back, “Is it appropriate to tell the truth?”

Raju later posted the interview to X and added some additional context. “Rep. Van Orden defends yelling ‘lies’ at Biden during SOTU. Inside the room, it was difficult to tell who said it. Then sources told me he yelled at them,” Raju wrote, adding:

At first, he wouldn’t say it was him. Then he eventually acknowledged it.

Raju continued his reporting on Thursday night, nothing, “So I went back and forth like that for some time. So as you can see, they’re very clearly defending his remarks.”

“But I just caught I’ve caught up with a lot of members of the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans. Most of the remarks are mostly coming on around party lines. Most Democrats saying this is a great speech, Republicans sharply criticizing it. Some members on the left, though, aren’t happy with how the president talked about Israel – wanted the calls for an immediate cease-fire. And one important member I just caught up with to the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. I asked him about whether or not it alleviated any of his concerns about the president’s mental acuity, and he indicated that it did not,” Raju reported.

Erin Burnette replied, “Got very, very interesting in watching him, early on, standing up when the president talked about NATO and then, you know, just watching his facial expressions throughout. All right, Manu, thank you very much.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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