Frog Suits and Thick Coats: Democrats Try to Fire Up Base on State of the Union Night

Instead of attending President Donald Trump’s State of the Union, dozens of Democrats opted to attend counterprogramming events where they tried to take the spotlight on Tuesday.

Outside the Capitol in the frosty weather, Democrats, wearing thick jackets, appeared alongside activists — organized by the Democratic grassroots organization MoveOn — at a People’s State of the Union event where they spoke out against the Trump administration. The outdoor event featured potential contenders in the 2028 presidential election.

“The poorest of our country are trying to figure out how to make ends meet and how to pay for that grocery bill, because [Republicans] needed an extra billion dollars for their billionaire friends,” Sen. Ruben Gallego said at the event. “Whatever money they had left over, then they used it to hire the most amount of ICE agents to have the massive amount of deportations we have now, that are also targeting U.S. citizens, racial profiling Americans, arresting Latino veterans, and telling them you are not part of this country.”

The objective for these prominent Democrats? Fire up the base to get Democrats to engage this year, when many lawmakers are on the ballot.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handles funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is currently shut down, focused on hitting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“ICE is out of control. It is disappearing legal immigrants. It is tear-gassing elementary schools. It is murdering American citizens. Right now, as you know, the Department of Homeland Security is shut down, and I just want to be very clear with you about my position, and I think the position of many others who will stand on this stage tonight,” Murphy said. “Not one more dime for the Department of Homeland Security, until they start following the law in this country.”

The scene off the Hill was in stark contrast to that of Democrats who attended the speech in the House chamber, who largely stayed seated as Trump spoke. They did not clap and listened with serious expressions, especially for the first hour of the speech. But there was vocal dissent within the chamber. While Trump spoke about illegal immigration, Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shouted at the president about federal agents fatally shooting Americans in Minnesota. And Rep. Al Green was escorted out early in Trump’s speech for holding a sign stating “Black people aren’t apes!”

Last year, House Democrats angered leadership when they joined in a protest within the chamber against Trump’s joint address after being asked to be silent and show decorum in the chamber. This year, lawmakers were told to steer clear of the Capitol and not have any protests within the chamber.

Back at the People’s State of the Union event, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland criticized Trump’s posturing about the economy — and he suggested that Democrats should work to “un-rig the tax code.”

“He’s gonna pretend that he does wanna bring down those prices, and we know that is not what he wants because just a few weeks ago, when we talked about the affordability crisis, he said that was a big hoax,” Van Hollen said. “It’s not enough that we hold the line against Donald Trump. That, we must do. But let’s face it: we also need to show the American people that we are willing to stand up and fight against big, corporate special interests to the benefit of all of the American people.”

Down the street at the “State of the Swamp” event at the National Press Building in D.C. — hosted by the anti-Trump grassroots advocacy group Defiance — Sen. Ron Wyden tied economic issues to the Epstein scandal.

Flanked by people in inflatable frog suits — whom he credited as “heroes” for leading Portland’s resistance to a surge of DHS personnel and National Guard troops there, and who also served as a reference to the swamp of D.C. — he announced: “As the point person for the Senate Democrats, we are gonna pass a billionaire income tax.”

“When Donald Trump is in charge, it means the billionaires are in charge,” Wyden told the crowd. “The Epstein class is in charge. They sure as hell aren’t looking out for anybody here.”

Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts also riffed on what he called Trump’s failures to address affordability issues while describing Democrats’ “vision” for America’s post-Trump future.

“Imagine being able to go to the grocery store and afford your groceries because we don’t have tariffs on bananas and coffee, because that’s bananas and covfefe,” he said. “Imagine being a single parent, working two jobs to make ends meet, but so proud to know that the same rules apply to you as the billionaire CEOs.”

“That’s called a country where the working class is celebrated, and pedophiles go to prison,” Moulton continued, to a cheering crowd largely wearing frog hats and headbands.