Senator Walks Out of SOTU Speech: ‘Couldn’t Sit Through Hours of Trump’s Lies’

 
Mark Warner

Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) walked out of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, later stating that he could not tolerate Trump’s falsehoods.

Clocking in at one hour and 47 minutes, Trump’s address made history as the longest SOTU ever given. During his speech, Trump claimed that Democrats can’t be legitimately elected, took credit for supposedly ending eight wars, celebrated the U.S. men’s hockey team, commended Erika Kirk, yelled at Democrats in attendance, threw shade at Rep. Nancy Pelosi, criticized Supreme Court justices to their faces, and lied about gasoline prices.

Toward the end of Trump’s speech, Warner revealed he punched out of the speech before it was over.

“Walked out of the State of the Union because I couldn’t sit through hours of Trump’s lies,” the senator wrote on Bluesky. “Americans know the truth: he’s spiking prices and wrecking our economy. We’re a better country than this.”

Warner left much more quietly than Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). As Trump boasted about his crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Tlaib, alluding to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shouted, “They saw the videos, Mr. President!”

Good and Pretti were fatally shot by federal immigration agents last month in Minneapolis.

“You have killed Americans!” Omar shouted. The two lawmakers were seen leaving the chamber before the speech ended.

Warner, Omar, and Tlaib lasted much longer than Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who was ejected from the House chamber before the speech even began. Green had been holding up a sign reading, “Black people are not apes,” a reference to Trump’s reposting of a video that depicted Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as gorillas. The president later deleted the post.

Green was also kicked out of Trump’s address to Congress last year.

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Mike is a Mediaite senior editor who covers the news in primetime. Follow him on Bluesky.