Democratic congresswoman Debbie Dingell (Mich.) was caught on camera dozing off during a committee hearing Wednesday morning, drawing mockery and prompting comparisons to former president Joe Biden.
Video footage shows Dingell, 71, with her eyes closed and head tilted upward as she sits near the center of the dais during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
WATCH:@RepDebDingell is asleep in a hearing room pic.twitter.com/AhVaGiFjcf
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) May 14, 2025
The Michigan congresswoman, who has served in the House since 2015, came under scrutiny in February after she paid tribute to Osama Siblani, an anti-Semitic activist who hailed the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah as a “hero” and has called for Jews to be sent “back to Poland.” Dingell said that Siblani’s “voice has rung loud and clear as an advocate for Arab lives around the world” and that his “efforts are worthy of commendation.”
In addition to serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell is in charge of messaging for House Democrats.
X users pointed out that Dingell is not the only Democrat in recent memory to struggle with staying awake on the job.
Biden wandered off during a debate prep session last June, collapsed “into a lounge chair,” and fell “sound asleep,” the author of a new book on the 2024 election revealed based on conversations with former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain. In 2021, Biden also appeared to doze off at a U.N. Climate Change Conference as a speaker told attendees that the conference was “one of the most important meetings in history.”
Other X users criticized Dingell’s apparent nap as disrespectful.
“You’re not even in the back of the room, you’re in front of everyone,” one X user commented. “No class. Have some respect for your position.”
“In the private sector Dingell would be fired for sleeping on the job,” a second X user wrote, while another said, “Is there a real difference when she is awake? She talks as if we live in Dreamland anyways.”
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