The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to censure Michigan’s democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib.
The vote was originally supposed to happen on Wednesday, but it was moved up after Representative Rich McCormick’s (R-Ga.) office, the congressman who introduced the resolution, received death threats.
“I take the safety of my team seriously. I am temporarily closing my physical district office location in Cumming, GA due to serious threats of violence against my staff. These threats have been reported to Capitol Police and will be investigated fully,” McCormick said in an X post.
She is the only Palestinian-American in Congress, and she was censured over comments she made about Israel that were not accepted well by her colleagues.
The voting censure passed 234-188 with four voting present. The censure focused on statements that Tlaib made after Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated with strikes on Gaza. The resolution accused her of “promoting false narratives” and alleged she called for the destruction of Israel.
Some said Tlaib’s “from the river to the sea” pro-Palestinian comments parroted language of anti-Israel groups, and she also repeated the now-discredited allegation of Israel’s culpability for a strike at a Gaza hospital.
Opponents of the measure said Tlaib’s comments fell well short of censure, with allies saying lawmakers were ganging up on her unfairly. Was it unfair though?
The vote was largely along party lines, with 22 Democrats joining with most Republicans to censure Tlaib. That never happens. Democrats almost always vote together. When they do not support a fellow democrat, then that democrat did something very wrong. Anit-semitic comments cannot be allowed by members of Congress.
Tlaib responded to the censure by saying it would not work.
“Folks forget I’m from the city of Detroit, the most beautiful, Blackest city in the country, where I learned to speak truth to power, even if my voice shakes. Trying to bully or censure me won’t work.”
To hear Tony Katz’s thoughts on Tlaib being censured, click the link below.
