Representative Al Green was removed from the chamber during the February 2026 State of the Union address after producing a large sign, in defiance of a Democratic leadership instruction that anyone displaying one would be thrown out. Asked about it the following morning, John Kiriakou was unimpressed.[1]
The objection
Green “did not impress me last night with his big sign,” Kiriakou said. The leadership had said no signs; Green pulled out a giant one; and then he was thrown out. “And so what have you accomplished?”[1]
The second half of the criticism is the operative one. If you are going to be removed, Kiriakou argued, be removed properly: “if you get thrown out, get thrown out spicily, struggle, fight back.” Green, in his account, did none of that — “He just walked out. He just got up and went out.”[1]
The wider charge
Kiriakou generalised from the incident rather than leaving it as a complaint about one member. “It’s all so performative,” he said, “and the American people know that.”[1] Ted Rall’s interjection — “Both sides. Both sides” — records the scope Kiriakou intended.
The judgement is consistent with the criticism he made of the Democratic caucus more broadly that morning: that they had been insulted, had their patriotism and sanity questioned, and produced no answer, when what the moment called for was open refusal. He had asked earlier what they were so worried about — whether the sergeant at arms would remove them — and answered himself: “Whoop-de-doo. Watch it on TV later.”
A note on attribution
The surrounding transcript interleaves Kiriakou and Rall closely, and several of the sharper lines about the evening belong to Rall. The judgement recorded here — that Green’s protest was a failure because he complied with his own removal — is Kiriakou’s, delivered as a continuous passage beginning with his refusal to be impressed.[1]