- Far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert heckled Biden during his State of the Union address.
- Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of House Democrats' campaign arm, slammed Boebert for the outburst.
- "I don't know that I belong to the same human race" as Boebert, he said.
Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney slammed Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert for heckling President Joe Biden's State of the Union address as he discussed the death of his son Beau.
"When they came home, many of the world's fittest and best trained warriors were never the same. Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin. I know," Biden said, as Boebert interrupted him.
"You put them there, 13 of them," the Colorado congresswoman yelled, referring to the 13 American troops who were killed in Afghanistan while protecting Kabul airport during the US's chaotic withdrawal in August. That prompted booing from Democratic lawmakers.
"One of those soldiers was my son Major Beau Biden," Biden went on to say. "We don't know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops. But I'm committed to finding out everything we can."
—Adam Kazmierski (@adamkazmierski) March 2, 2022
Insider caught up with Maloney, who runs House Democrats' campaign arm, after the speech on Tuesday evening.
"I don't understand a person who yells at our president when he's talking about the loss of his son, in service to the country, in the military," the New York lawmaker said. "I don't know that I belong to the same human race as someone who thinks it makes sense to yell at someone when they're talking about their dead son, and veterans who are suffering because of wounds incurred during their service.
"So I think it was a disgraceful moment, but we've come to expect it from those members, sadly," Maloney said.
Insider also spoke with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who said the outburst was "dishonoring people who serve" in the military.
"How can you be so careless for the families of people who've lost their lives? I was shocked," he said.
Khanna also noted the sense of unity he felt as Biden spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine during the first part of his speech.
"The whole country was unified, and I thought that was a great moment. I felt proud to be an American, proud to be in that body," he said. "And then it devolved again into the Congress we know."