Rep. Joe Kennedy rips Trump, Republicans in Democratic State of the Union response

Rep. Joseph Kennedy III slammed President Donald Trump for "targeting laws" that protect Americans on Tuesday night as he delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union address.

"It would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos. Partisanship. Politics," Kennedy said. "But it's far bigger than that. This administration isn't just targeting the laws that protect us — they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection."

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The Massachusetts congressman and grandson to the late Robert F. Kennedy has served as the representative for Massachusetts' 4th District for three terms and has never been one to pull punches against his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill. Kennedy, 37, delivered the response from Fall River, Massachusetts -- a working-class city in the southern part of the state.

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Continuing a Kennedy legacy of outreach to America's most underprivileged and working class people, the lawmaker named a laundry list of Democratic grievances with the Trump administration's platform -- including removing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy, attempting to repeal and replace Obamacare and failing to stand up to the big money fueling gun violence that plagues the nation.

"For them, dignity isn't something you're born with, but something you measure," Kennedy said of Republicans. "By your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size."

Members of the transgender community and activists supporting the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements also received call outs in Kennedy's speech — describing a national atmosphere in which the voices are heard of those "who feel forgotten and forsaken."

Kennedy also called out a Russia "knee-deep" in U.S. democracy, an "all-out war" on environmental protection and a Justice Department that he describes as "rolling back civil rights by the day."

When legislative deliberations surrounding the GOP attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare grew tense in 2017, Kennedy delivered a fiery floor speech in which he named the Republican-crafted Obamacare replacement an "act of malice."

"I was struck last night by a comment I heard made by Speaker Ryan, where he called this repeal bill, quote, an 'act of mercy,'" Kennedy said back in March of last year. "With all due respect to our speaker, he and I must have read different scripture."

In conclusion on Tuesday, though, the Democrat urged his audience to "have faith," saying the state of the U.S. union is "hopeful, resilient and enduring."

Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maxine Waters were also set to deliver their own responses to Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday night in separate events.