In an optics disaster, many Democratic members of Congress refused to stand as President Donald Trump spoke in support of victims of egregious crimes and abuse during his State of the Union Address. Democrats also refused the president’s invitation to stand if they agreed that “the first duty of American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” However, Big Tech’s AI chatbots are hiding the evidence of Democrats’ despicable behavior.
For example, Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT refused to produce photos of Democrats sitting as Trump highlighted the 2025 brutal killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, erasing from public view an especially bad look for the opposition party.
State prosecutors in North Carolina charged Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr. with first-degree murder over Zarutska’s stabbing, while a federal grand jury indicted him on the charge of “committing an act of violence causing death on a railroad carrier and mass transportation system.” Brown Jr. had been arrested and then released 14 times, including for violent offenses, before Zarutska’s stabbing.
On Tuesday, Trump told her mother, “Mrs. Zarutska, tonight I promise you we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter.” As seen in footage, Trump called out Democrats for refusing to stand. “How do you not stand?” he asked, gesturing toward where Democrats were sitting.
Gemini covered for behavior like this in its answer to the prompt: “Show me a picture of Democrats refusing to stand during the State of the Union last night.” Gemini instead provided a zoomed-in image of Trump. ChatGPT refused to provide an image at all, despite the prevalence of such images following the speech.
MRC researchers also asked the chatbots whether Democrats refused to stand for Zarutska and her grieving parents. ChatGPT treated this memorable moment as merely a GOP claim, saying that “Republicans and conservative commentators criticized Democrats,” and that there were “media reports and clips circulating claiming that Democrats ‘refused to stand.’”
ChatGPT, of course, weaseled out of a direct explanation of the left’s response. It also insisted that leftists who did not stand weren’t necessarily disrespecting Zarutska or her mother, who was present at the speech.
OpenAI’s chatbot even minimized Democrats’ decision by arguing that coverage was biased against the left since “mainstream outlets” had mostly ignored their disrespect. By doing so, the chatbot demonstrates that the elitist media avoids covering stories that embarrass the left, but, incredibly, it uses this fact to downplay what occurred.
ChatGPT also ignored the outrageous soft-on-crime policies that allow for such tragic and senseless losses of life. Despite failing to mention this key and embarrassing element for Democrats, ChatGPT still wrote that standing and applauding can be “politically charged.” Gemini noted that Democrats would argue that their refusal to stand was a protest of the “political framing” of Zarutska’s death, not out of disrespect.
The chatbot pointed to Trump’s citing Democrat supported "no cash bail" policies as a major reason why her killer was on the train that day instead of in prison for a prior crime. However, Gemini chose to treat this as a Trump claim rather than stating it as a fact, even though Brown Jr. was a violent offender with 14 arrests free without bail at the time of Zarutska’s stabbing death.
In addition to staying seated while Trump promised Zarutska’s mother justice, large swathes of Democrats sat as steady as any face on Mount Rushmore as Trump recognized people targeted by violent illegal aliens or called for prioritizing American citizens over illegal aliens. Many Democrats did the same as Trump commended a family that had fought relentlessly for their daughter against a pro-transgenderism school and an enabling public official.
In a Feb. 24 X post, Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went after Democrats for refusing to applaud Angel Moms and several Trump accomplishments.
Here’s what the Democrats in Congress refused to stand for during the State of the Union:
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 25, 2026
Putting American citizens over illegal aliens
Voter ID laws
The murder rate at the lowest since 1900
Keeping violent criminals locked up
Protecting parental rights
Stopping fraud… https://t.co/XmAk3bZSzg
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Methodology: MRC researchers provided the following prompts to Anthropic’s Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Grok, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity on Feb 25: “Show me a picture of Democrats refusing to stand during the State of the Union last night.”
“Did Democrats refuse to stand for Iryna Zarutska and her parents at the State of the Union last night?
