The 7 Worst Instances of Bad Behavior at the State of the Union

The most memorable thing about the State of the Union lately isn’t the president’s speech — it’s the jeering from the cheap seats.

Bad behavior from members of Congress during one of Washington’s most hallowed events has gotten more frequent in recent years, and more raucous. History shows it’s also been a bipartisan affair.

“At times, the United States Congress is starting to resemble the British House of Commons with members heckling,” said Terry Szuplat, a former Barack Obama speechwriter who worked on many State of the Union addresses. “More than ever, presidents have to be able to respond in the moment, they have to be nimble. They have to expect that the kind of decorum that we saw in decades past is gone.”

The rise in rudeness at the State of the Union and other presidential addresses appears to start in 1975 — at least that’s the first instance POLITICO could find of lawmakers acting out of turn. And it tracks neatly with the coarsening of our broader national politics, which perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise: The ugliness in our political culture can’t help but bleed into even the most prestigious moments.

So President Joe Biden needs to be ready to tangle with members of Congress on Thursday night. But he should also know when to stand pat; sometimes the broadsides backfire and the president has the chance to look the statesman.

'Watergate babies' walk out of Gerald Ford’s 1975 address

In 1974, a wave of Democrats won election to Congress promising reform in the wake of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s resignation. The “Watergate babies” didn’t wait long to make themselves known. At President Gerald Ford’s State of the Union address in 1975, a number of them got up and left the chamber before Ford even began to speak — a message meant to signal they wouldn’t be like most timid freshman lawmakers and a move that stunned some in Washington. “I can’t recall such disrespect for the president of the United States in any other era,” said Charles Leppert, a deputy assistant for legislative affairs in the House of Representatives.

A few months later, during a “State of the World” address where Ford asked Congress for more military funding for South Vietnam, two more Democrats walked out mid-speech. “I thought it an appalling rude display,” Ford later said. Of course, quietly walking out of the chamber pales in comparison to what lawmakers in the 21st century are doing in it.

Congressional Democrats boo George W. Bush over Social Security in 2005

During his 2005 State of the Union address President George W. Bush made clear he intended to pursue changes to arguably the most sensitive program in American politics: Social Security. “By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt,” said Bush. He was met with a chorus of heavy boos and calls of “No!” from Democrats.

While calls of “No!” might seem tame to us today, back in 2005 that sort of heckling was still considered abnormal and beneath the dignity of the chamber. “It was unusual,” said CNN commentator Bill Schneider at the time. “I had never heard it at least at that level before.”

Joe Wilson shouts 'You lie!' at Barack Obama in 2009

Bad behavior at presidential addresses went up a big notch in 2009, when South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe Wilson shouted, “You lie!” at President Barack Obama. Most people remember this as a State of the Union, but it actually wasn’t one; instead, Obama was giving an address to a joint session of Congress to make a big pitch for health care reform. Obama had just said that his health care reforms wouldn’t cover undocumented immigrants when Wilson shouted “You lie!” from below in the chamber. Obama curtly said “It’s not true” before continuing with his remarks.

It was an instantly viral moment. Within 15 minutes of the conclusion of the address Wilson’s website had crashed and his Wikipedia page had been locked due to “vandalism.” After the address, Republicans and Democrats alike condemned Wilson’s behavior, with Sen. John McCain declaring that the comments were “totally disrespectful.” The House later passed a resolution of disapproval, mostly along party lines, and Wilson apologized to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The “you lie!” comment has chased Wilson ever since. In 2017 a group of his constituents hurled the line back at him after he spoke disparagingly of Obamacare.

Samuel Alito mouths the words 'not true' during Barack Obama’s 2010 address

Obama made the rare move of confronting the Supreme Court in his 2010 State of the Union address when he condemned the Citizens United decision, which removed longstanding restrictions on campaign spending by corporations and other organizations. “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities,” Obama said.

As the chamber erupted in applause the justices, who sat directly in front of the dais, were mostly stone-faced, but television cameras caught Justice Samuel Alito — who had voted with the majority — shaking his head and mouthing the words “not true.” Typically the justices refrain from any show of emotion during the speech, making Alito’s apparent breach of decorum particularly newsworthy.

Nancy Pelosi shreds Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in 2020

Moments after President Donald Trump finished giving his 2020 address, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood, looked out over the chamber and ripped Trump’s speech in half, as an oblivious Trump waved to the crowd. At the State of the Union, the dais is the stage, and the side-by-side of then-Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi made for frequent theatrics during the Trump years. Still, nothing topped Pelosi’s speech ripping.

“It was a manifesto of mistruths,” she told reporters as she left the Capitol. “He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech,” Pelosi told members of the House Democratic Caucus the day after. Republicans weren’t happy, with Pence telling “Fox and Friends” that the moment was a “new low.”

Lauren Boebert heckles Joe Biden over Afghanistan in 2022

In the midst of a stretch of President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union speech on veterans, Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert stood and shouted at the president “You put them there — 13 of them,” referring to the deaths of 13 American service members during the withdrawal from Afghanistan the prior year.

At the time Biden was speaking about legislation on burn pits and his son Beau Biden’s own battle with brain cancer. Boebert’s heckling was greeted with boos throughout the chamber. One Democrat shouted “kick her out!” before Biden, flustered, continued with his speech.

Marjorie Taylor Greene screams 'liar' at Joe Biden over Social Security in 2023

Biden appeared to get the better of a different Republican hard-liner in 2023. After Biden said that some Republicans wanted to “sunset” Social Security and Medicare, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted “liar” at the president.

That sparked an ad-libbed retort from Biden and a back-and-forth with Republicans that marked one of the sharpest exchanges of the night, and one in which Biden was largely deemed the victor. POLITICO’s John Harris observed that Republicans like Greene had turned themselves into “prime-time props” for the president. Even heckling has its limits.