Watch: Congresswoman kicked off camera after sleeping during House speech

Telegraph

03-07-2025

A Democrat congresswoman was moved off camera after sleeping during Hakeem Jeffries's eight-hour-long speech delaying the passage of Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill'.
With the massive budget measure passed by the Senate on Wednesday, and having been voted through the House of Representatives, the bill will now become law.
However, in the early hours of Thursday morning, following an overnight debate in the House, Democratic Minority Leader Mr Jeffries started speaking in an effort to slow passage of the bill.
Some speculated over whether Mr Jeffries, the congressional representative for New York's 8th district, was trying to push the voting through of the bill past Mr Trump's deadline of July 4.
However, his efforts were in vain and the bill passed 218-214.
As people tuned in to watch Mr Jeffries's so-called 'Magic Minute' pass more than eight hours and break a previous record, a colleague sitting directly behind him could be seen snoozing.
Democrat @Marcy_Kaptur failed and failed and failed and failed to stay awake pic.twitter.com/YZEXh86Vus
— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) July 3, 2025
Video posted on social media showed what appeared to be a staff member or colleague tap Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, 79, on the shoulder to wake her.
She was promptly replaced by Delaware congresswoman Sarah McBride.
And here's the moment when @Marcy_Kaptur got the tap on the shoulder from Democrat staff to leave and be replaced by Delaware Representative McBride https://t.co/PdmOtRGSwM pic.twitter.com/4LGb8WGc1E
— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) July 3, 2025
Republican state representative, Josh Williams, who plans to challenge and defeat the Democrat in the 2026 elections, wrote on X: 'Marcy Kaptur has been sleeping on the job for longer than I've been alive.'
He added: 'Enough is enough! Northwest Ohio deserves real representation in Congress, not a slumbering career politician who votes for record tax increases.'
Sleep-deprived politicians
The snoozing of Ms Kaptur, who has represented Ohio's 9th congressional district since 1983, came after a series of sleep-deprived nights for many politicians involved in votes on Mr Trump's main domestic measure.
Often the voting has gone on until the early hours.
Democrats have been united in their opposition to the measures proposed in Mr Trump's bill, arguing that millions of people will lose access to health care and welfare items such as food stamps.
Without enough votes in either the Senate or the House to stop passage of the measure, they have been reduced to largely symbolic acts of resistance. In one such move, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, mandated that the entire 940-page bill be read aloud.
On Thursday, Mr Jeffries was making use of his right as leader to speak for longer than usual than the allotted minute and highlight what he claimed were the perils to millions of Americans contained in Mr Trump's measures.
Starting speaking a little before 5am, he said he did not care about Mr Trump's demand to have the bill passed by July 4.
He added: 'I'm here today to make it clear that I'm going to take my time and ensure that the American people fully understand how damaging this bill will be to their quality of life.'