Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Laura Gillen (D-NY) appear to be among the very few in their party to criticize the behavior of Democrats during President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening joint address before Congress, stating that they stood up for young cancer fighter DJ Daniel when others did not.
In an anecdote shared to X on Thursday, Khanna began by recounting what a flight attendant told him while he was traveling this week:
“Jim Barrett, a flight attendant, politely chased me down at Chicago Airport,” the congressman wrote. “‘Sir, I am a Democrat but the way the party behaved was embarrassing. Made us look heartless. I don’t care who is up there, you stand for the boy with cancer. Be more rational & get your act together.’”
DJ, a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer, was honored by Trump at the address and named a member of the Secret Service to help him accomplish his dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. The teen, from Houston, Texas, has previously been sworn in to over 900 police departments worldwide, Breitbart News reported.
Despite receiving such a great honor while battling cancer, Democrats remained seated, while Republicans in the House chamber stood, applauded, and cheered DJ’s name:
Khanna said that he told the flight attendant that “a few of us did stand and clap, and we must be the party that still believes in kindness, decency, and trying to bring people together.”
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) also stood up for DJ and called out her colleagues for the disrespect on News12 Long Island:
“Quite frankly, there were moments where I feel like anger at some of the actions that have happened over the past month-and-a-half prevented some of my colleagues from being able to stand up to support the little DJ Daniel,” Gillen said. “I stood up and applauded this little boy, who is getting over cancer, wants to be a police officer — and I was disappointed that I was not joined by any of my colleagues.”
It is unclear if any other Democrats stood up for DJ — but every Republican did.
Even though most Democrats did not even muster a clap for the boy, he had a great time visiting Trump in the Oval Office the next day.
