Much like Ivanka Trump predicted, tonight’s State of the Union was exciting — just not for reasons her or anyone else could have predicted. In tonight’s speech, President Donald Trump began speaking about health care reform before he was interrupted by a group of Democrats shouting “HR3.” Their chant refers to a specific reform bill passed by the House but unlikely to be taken up by the Senate.
A “YOU LIE” moment just erupted, as DEMs chanted over trump “HR3! HR3,” which is a bill that gives Medicare the power to negotiate directly with the drug companies.
Powerful moment. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/ubFFXJVtte
โ BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 5, 2020
As the tweet pointed out, it’s comparable to the infamous “YOU LIE” moment, which happened in September of 2009 when then-President Barack Obama was addressing both houses of Congress — albeit was not a State of the Union speech. The moment saw Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shout “you lie” as the President was speaking about healthcare reform, which has become an infamous moment in modern political history.
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It was one of the several noteworthy moments from tonight’s speech, which included a surprise appearance by talk show host Rush Limbaugh just after making his cancer diagnosis public, as well as him being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. There was also Trump apparently snubbing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just before beginning his roughly 90-minute speech to both houses of Congress.
As things came to a close, Pelosi capped off the evening by tearing up her copy of the State of the Union speech.
Trump and Pelosi have a known contentious relationship, which dates back before Pelosi brought two articles of impeachment against the 45th president in September. He was impeached by the House in December, although the vote was largely along party lines. Since then, Trump’s trial has been moved to the Senate, and in fact, aired against tonight’s State of the Union speech.
Also worth noting that tonight’s State of the Union is only the second in history delivered by an impeached President amid their Senate trial. The first happened in 1999 when then-President Bill Clinton — though he was ultimately voted to remain in office for the duration of his second term. Andrew Johnson’s impeachment pre-dates the State of the Union tradition by 45 years.