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Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert heckle Biden at State of the Union

Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert heckled President Biden Tuesday at his first State of the Union address.

Greene (R-Ga.) made faces and muttered throughout Biden’s roughly one-hour speech, particularly when he spoke about administering COVID-19 vaccines to children — but Boebert (R-Colo.) earned greater gasps for slamming Biden’s Afghanistan exit by invoking the deaths of 13 US troops in an August bombing at Kabul’s airport.

Many of Greene’s utterances were inaudible to reporters, such as when she said something in Biden’s direction when he spoke about ordering antiviral pills from Pfizer to treat COVID-19.

The critical behavior called to mind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up President Donald Trump’s speech at the end of the 2020 State of the Union address.

Vice President Mike Pence claps as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to rip up a copy of President Donald Trump’s speech after he delivers the 2020 State of the Union address. AFP via Getty Images

Some of the unbridled former gym owner’s heckling was actually in support of the commander-in-chief.

When Biden said “the answer is not to defund the police,” Greene joined in a nearly unanimous standing ovation, which was boycotted by a small handful of leftist lawmakers including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) heckles at President Biden during the State of the Union address. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene react to President Biden’s State of the Union address. Getty Images
Repd. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene scream, “Build the wall.” AP

“That’s right!” she yelled.

But when Biden said that “we need to secure the border,” the diehard supporter of former President Donald Trump bellowed at the president, “Build the wall!” in reference to Trump’s US-Mexico border wall, which Biden halted as one of his first acts in office.

Boebert, seated near Greene in a shoulder-to-shoulder array with allies who flouted signs requesting that they leave an empty seat between attendees, drew shouted replies from Democrats for her heckling, while Greene was mostly ignored.

President Biden delivers his State of the Union address before lawmakers in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 1, 2022. Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via REUTERS
The “Build the wall” phrase references Trump’s US-Mexico border wall. Charlie Riedel

Biden, speaking about veterans and making a very thinly veiled reference to his own late son, Beau Biden, said, “they come home, many of the world’s fittest and best-trained warriors in the world, never the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.”

“You put them in! Thirteen of them!” Boebert shouted to appalled mumblings from peers.

Heckling a president speaking to Congress was once considered so rude that it earned massive media coverage. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) infamously shouted “You lie!” in 2009 while President Barack Obama was addressing a joint session of Congress during his first year in office.