Less than one week after taking to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Texas Democratic Representative Al Green returned to Congress with a very different message for both his supporters and his critics.
“For those who may not know, some very ugly things have been said,” Green began, referencing a series of threatening messages he’d received from angry Trump supporters (“we’ll lynch all you fucking niggers,” one caller reportedly told him) which prompted “extreme security measures” from the congressman’s team.
“But,” Rep. Green continued, “they are not in any way comparable to the many kind words that have been expressed.”
Thanking his supporters on behalf of both him, and his staff—“many of whom are young people who are having this as their first experience with Congress”—Rep. Green concluded his brief remarks by reciting poet James Patrick Kinney’s poem “The Cold Within.”
“This poem speaks to the extreme cupidity in our world,” Green explained. “Not stupidity. Cupidity.”