Two polarizing members of the House of Representatives – one from each political party – will avoid being punished for their words and actions, following lawmakers’ voting Wednesday not to proceed with censure efforts.
Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib was facing censure for controversial comments she made about Israel, and Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was facing a similar censure resolution.
Once the vote against Tlaib went down, Democrats apparently pulled the plug on their efforts to censure MTG.
All that was needed to block the proposal to publicly reprimand Tlaib from advancing to one final vote was a simple majority. But, since the GOP has control of the House, that meant that Democrats needed at least a few Republicans to vote against the censure for it to fail.
In the end, 23 GOP members in the House joined with all the Democrats to vote down the measure to censure Tlaib.
The House had been expected to take up a motion that would table the censure proposal against Greene, though that was removed from the lower chamber’s scheduled once the resolution against Tlaib was blocked.
Greene actually introduced the resolution against Tlaib just last week, after the Democrat from Michigan criticized Israel in its fight against Hamas. Greene accused Tlaib of participating in “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection,” since she participated in a protest at the House office building.
On October 18, hundreds of people showed up to the Cannon House Office Building to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas U.S. Capitol Police said about 300 protesters were arrested there, three of whom were charged with assaulting an officer.
The protesters entered the building legally by going through visitor checkpoints, Capitol Police said. They also had a permit to gather together, but protests aren’t allowed to take place inside the building.
In making her case against Tlaib, Greene cited multiple statements that Tlaib made supporting Palestinians and heavily criticizing the government of Israel. As she wrote on the social media platform X:
“Tlaib must be censured for her radical support of Hamas terrorists and hatred of our ally Israel.”
In a statement, Tlaib – who is a Palestinian American – said that Greene’s “unhinged resolution is deeply Islamophobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates.”
Democratic Representative Becca Balint from Vermont filed a retaliatory resolution that would’ve censured Greene. The measure had accused Greene of making antisemitic, xenophobic and racist statements repeatedly and also stoking some conspiracy theories.
Balint issued a statement Thursday, saying that Greene’s resolution “is an overt Islamaphobic attack” on Tlaib.
Balint’s statement reads:
“Her resolution is riddled with lies. It’s bigoted. It’s dangerous. This kind of rhetoric fans the flames of hate and fear at a time when Muslim Americans are already facing increased threats and violence.”
Her measure said MTG has “repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asia hate, xenophobia and other forms of hatred.”
