Several top Democrats have faced opposition and protests while speaking at events this year, mostly from liberal groups unhappy with the Biden administration's handling of the environment and the war involving Israel.
Over the last few months, leading Democratic leaders have traveled to universities to speak at panels or appear at organizations' functions to tout President Joe Biden's agenda, rally voters, or speak about world events.
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Here are the Democratic leaders who have been shouted down, heckled, or interrupted during their events so far this year.
Hillary Clinton
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton engaged in a tense back-and-forth exchange with a protester while she was moderating a panel for the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University on Oct. 23.
Protester Robert Castle from the Schiller Institute began yelling at Clinton about her support of "war-mongering" Biden, arguing that the president's $100 billion aid request for Israel and Ukraine was sending the United States into World War III.
Clinton said, "Well, I'm not sorry. Sit down," to Castle, prompting the protester to yell back, “I know you’re not sorry. That’s the point."
The former first lady admonished Castle for stating that he was exercising his right to free speech. At one point, Clinton adviser Allida Black yelled at Castle after he continued to disrupt the event, stating, “What have you done other than stand up and disrupt?”
"It’s not free speech when you’re disrupting everybody else’s opportunity to speak,” Clinton eventually said, inviting the man to speak with her after the panel, to which he replied, "I don't believe you."
Days later, 30 students walked out of Clinton's Columbia University class to join nearly 300 other protesters in the school’s International Affairs Building. Students packed their bags and left halfway through Clinton's two-hour lecture.
On Wednesday, pro-Palestinian students staged a walkout and subsequent sit-in during Clinton's "Inside the Situation Room" class in protest of her support for Israel during the war in the Middle East between Hamas and the Jewish state.
The students chanted loudly at her, "Hillary, Hillary, you can’t hide! You're supporting genocide!"
Pete Buttigieg
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has faced several protests from climate change activists in recent months.
His speech at Michigan State University, highlighting Biden's infrastructure investments, was interrupted by protesters chanting "Petrol Pete" on Wednesday night. The protest involving approximately eight people was organized by Climate Defiance, and one person was arrested and charged with disorderly assemblages and conduct.
Outside the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, where Buttigieg was speaking, protesters were picketing in the parking garage, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Many said they would refuse to vote for Biden in 2024 due to the administration's silence about Palestinian deaths.
"They think we will easily forget this. We will not," Thasin Sardar, trustee of the Islamic Center of East Lansing, said via Lansing State Journal. "This is the last straw."
At a conference in October, Climate Defiance members interrupted Buttigieg after they went onstage with signs to protest a petrochemical project in Texas. One of their chants was, "Stop Petro Pete."
When confronted last month, Buttigieg said he "[respected] where you're coming from" to the protesters before being cut off and leaving with his security team.
Cory Booker
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Sen. Cory Booker's (D-NJ) speech at a get-out-the-vote event in New Jersey on Nov. 5, two days before Election Day, to call for a ceasefire.
Several of the protesters held up red-dyed hands, symbolizing the deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces as the war continues. Roughly 1,400 Israelis and thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to reports from both sides' governments.
Protesters also shouted, “Free, free Palestine!” and “Cory Booker, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide" during the rally.
Booker welcomed the protest, pointing to it as an example of what makes the United States "great."
“This is what makes America great: the power to protest, the power to have free speech, the power of America," the New Jersey senator said.
The protest at the rally came after Code Pink, a nonprofit feminist grassroots organization, draped a banner in front of Booker's office as part of a demand for several Democrats in Congress to force Israel to end its military operations in Gaza. A banner displayed by anti-war activists in front of Booker's office on Nov. 3 read, "Stop Arming Israel."
Joe Biden
Biden himself has encountered several protesters in the last few months while giving speeches or walking near his home.
In September, the president's speech in Arizona honoring the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was interrupted by a man named Kai Newkirk, who called on Biden to declare a national emergency on the climate crisis.
"Why have you yet to declare a climate emergency? Hundreds of Arizonans have died," Newkirk said via Fox News.
"If you shush up, I'll meet with you immediately after this," the president said with a calming gesture, earning applause from the crowd.
During his keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign in October, Biden was shouted down by a pro-Palestinian activist calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
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“Thank you for whatever you’re saying. I can’t hear you,” Biden said before continuing his remarks.
Most recently, Biden and first lady Jill Biden's stroll through Nantucket was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters shouting "ceasefire" and "Free Palestine." The Biden family also attended a town Christmas tree lighting where a handful of protesters yelled, "Biden, Biden, you can't hide — we charge you with genocide." A community organizer told the protesters that "we respect your right to free speech" before asking them to stop, which they did not, according to pool reports.