NOTUS: Democrats Say They ‘Will Not Take a Lecture’ From Republicans on Decorum

Two days after a Republican subcommittee chair adjourned a hearing over a dispute about pronouns, House Democrats spent part of their yearly policy retreat Thursday dismissing GOP attacks on their decorum.

“We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection,” Rep. Sarah McBride told reporters on Thursday, after a group of female lawmakers was asked about Republican criticism of Democratic antics during Donald Trump’s recent joint address and the episode on Tuesday involving McBride’s pronouns.

McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, was introduced at a hearing by House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe Chair Keith Self as “Mr. McBride.”

McBride, without missing a beat, returned the misgendering favor. “Thank you, Madam Chair,” she said.

The top Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, interjected and asked Self to repeat himself.

“We have set the standard on the floor of the House, and I’m simply —” Self said, before Keating interrupted him again.

“What is that standard, Mr. Chairman?” Keating thundered. “Would you repeat what you just said when you introduced a duly elected representative from the United States of America? Please!”

“I will,” Self said, once again referring to the congresswoman from Delaware as “Mr. McBride.”

“Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent,” Keating said. “You will not continue with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way.”

Self promptly adjourned the meeting.

On Thursday, McBride told reporters that she apparently lives “rent free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues.”

“I wish they would spend a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, figuring out how to make government actually work better, rather than making it work worse,” she added.

Democrats are scrambling to unify behind a message as voters push them to boldly oppose the Trump administration. And as Democrats consider voting for a GOP government funding bill that would continue to allow Trump to redirect funds that Congress approves to other endeavors, they are seizing on their annual policy retreat to slam Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts.

But they are also seizing on Republican attacks that Democrats have lacked decorum in their Trump opposition, particularly the attacks about the behavior of Democrats at the recent joint address.

Asked whether Democrats plan to address “conduct issues” — including Rep. Al Green’s outburst at Trump’s address to Congress and Republicans misgendering McBride — Minority Whip Katherine Clark was defiant.

“Their focus on our decorum or our behavior while they are burning down things for people at home just makes me livid,” she told reporters.

“If they want to focus on censures, if they want to focus on acting like children and misgendering Sarah — like, what are we doing?” she said. “Because they are systematically taking apart our country for folks at home who voted for them because they said they bring down the cost of living.”

Republicans have repeatedly misgendered McBride since the start of her term. During her maiden floor speech, Republican Rep. Mary Miller — who was presiding over the chamber at the time — introduced McBride as the “gentleman from Delaware.”