The House censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over her pro-Palestinian comments concerning the conflict in Israel, making her the second Democratic lawmaker this year to be condemned by her colleagues.
Lawmakers voted 234-188 to censure Tlaib, punishing the Michigan Democrat for “promoting false narratives” about the Oct. 7 attack against Israel by the Hamas militant group and allegedly calling for the “destruction of the state of Israel.” The resolution passed after 22 Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in supporting the measure, overcoming opposition that stalled a similar motion to censure Tlaib last week. Only four Republicans voted against the measure.
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Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) filed the motion on Monday, pushing for a censure resolution that would punish Tlaib for her comments while maintaining her First Amendment rights. The latter portion comes after 23 Republicans joined all Democrats in tabling a similar resolution last week offered by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), citing concerns with the bill’s language.
Democrats attempted to table the motion a second time on Tuesday, but that effort failed, teeing the resolution up for a final vote. The House was initially scheduled to vote on the full resolution on Wednesday, but House leaders later expedited its passage to move the vote to Tuesday night in a blow to Greene, who was originally scheduled to have a vote on her own censure resolution the same night.
Ahead of the vote, Greene told reporters she pulled her own censure resolution because her ultimate goal was to see Tlaib censured, and it became increasingly clear that motion would pass one way or the other. She also said she didn’t want to “be part of a competing censure resolutions” just because GOP “leadership failed to organize.”
“It’s not about Rich McCormick,” Greene said. “Nobody cares about Rich McCormick. Most people have no idea that he’s even doing that; most people think it’s my resolution. But he’s only doing it because he got his ego bruised.”
Unlike Greene’s broad resolution, McCormick’s resolution narrowly focused on Tlaib’s comments related to the recent warfare in Israel. The resolution chastised the Michigan Democrat for her remarks in the days following the Hamas attack, particularly her comments blaming Israel for a deadly airstrike at a Christian hospital in Gaza on Oct. 18.
U.S. intelligence officials later reported evidence the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but Tlaib repeatedly refused to retract her accusations.
The resolution also points to Tlaib’s most recent controversy stemming from a video she posted over the weekend featuring pro-Palestinian protesters marching in cities across the country chanting the phrase “from the river to the sea,” referring to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River that includes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Tlaib defended the use of the phrase, arguing it is an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence” and not “death, destruction, or hate.” However, the phrase prompted widespread backlash from several members of Tlaib’s own party, who pointed to the slogan’s adoption by the Hamas terrorist group to advocate the destruction of Israel.
As a result, 22 Democrats voted in favor of censuring Tlaib, pushing the legislation past the majority vote needed to take effect. However, McCormick’s measure did not include a provision that the Michigan Democrat must stand on the House floor for a condemnation, which may have also been an incentive for her fellow party members to rebuke her quietly.
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Tlaib has repeatedly pushed back on efforts to censure her, accusing her colleagues of taking time and effort away from “saving lives” in Gaza.
“Many of them have shown me that Palestinian lives simply do not matter to them, but I still do not police their rhetoric or actions,” Tlaib said in a statement on Tuesday. “Rather than acknowledge the voice and perspective of the only Palestinian American in Congress, my colleagues have resorted to distorting my positions in resolutions filled with obvious lies. I have repeatedly denounced the horrific targeting and killing of civilians by Hamas and the Israeli government, and have mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost.”
Congressional reporter Reese Gorman contributed to this report.
