Democrat demands apology from Van Orden after SOTU outburst

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) is demanding an apology from his fellow Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R) following Van Orden’s outburst at Thursday’s State of the Union address.

The outburst came as Biden spoke critically of former President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic while addressing the joint session of Congress, arguing that Trump “failed the most basic presidential duty that he owes to the American people: the duty to care.”

“Lies!” Van Orden yelled in response.

Pocan released a statement Friday morning, saying Van Orden “continues to embarrass” Wisconsin and Congress. He called on the first-term lawmaker to “formally apologize” to Biden for his outburst.

“It’s one thing to be a Trump fanatic; it’s another when you’re a member of Congress. This constant pattern of unnecessary outbursts, whether it’s teen pages in the Capitol Rotunda or administration officials at a classified briefing, has many of us worried about his temperament and perhaps his soberness,” Pocan said in the statement. Van Orden cursed out a group of teenage Senate pages in the rotunda last summer.

Following the speech, Van Orden neither confirmed nor denied he was the one who shouted at Biden.

“Who’s to say,” he said when questioned by The Hill if it was him who yelled, adding, “Who knows.”

Later Thursday, Van Orden released a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that was highly critical of Biden’s address, which the Wisconsin lawmaker argued showed how “out of touch he is” with Americans.

Van Orden criticized Biden on the southern border and immigration crisis, inflation and government spending and foreign affairs.

“Tonight’s address lacked honesty and transparency, but the American people know their paychecks do not go as far as they once did, and their communities are less safe than they were three years ago,” he said in the statement.