Congressman Al Green Attends Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress for First Time Since 2016

Statement

On Wednesday, April 28, 2021, Congressman Al Green released the following statement ahead of President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress:

"Tonight, a protest I committed myself to in 2017 will officially end as I will attend my first presidential address in four years. February 28, 2017 started my four-year act of civil resistance to the harmful behavior and rhetoric of our 45th President. On that date, I refused to attend President Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress after the Trump Justice Department withdrew its longstanding claim that the Texas Voter ID law intentionally discriminated against persons of color. As years passed, President Trump's rhetoric became increasingly incendiary and incitive, culminating on January 6, 2021 with the Capitol insurrection," stated Congressman Al Green -- who brought articles of impeachment against President Trump to a vote on the House floor in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

The Houston area Congressman added, "I am eager to attend tonight's address. I am proud of the work President Biden has done during his first 100 days in office and I look forward to continuing to work with the Biden-Harris administration. I am also gratified that for the first time in the history of our nation, we will see two women share the dais with a U.S. president for a joint session: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and person of color to serve as Vice President of the United States. Although we still have a long way to go, there is no denying we have truly come a long way."

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