WASHINGTON
The late Tuesday night vote that censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian American serving in the House of Representatives, saw 22 of her fellow Democrats join the vast majority of the chamber’s Republicans in rebuke.
Just over 10% of all House Democrats voted in favor of censuring the three-term congresswoman from Michigan for her comments on Israel that critics said are inflammatory and tantamount to antisemitism – charges denied by Tlaib. Only four Republicans joined most Democrats in opposition to the resolution.
The vote tally included 234 members voting in favor with 188 against.
Censure is a tool that has been seldom used to reprimand a House lawmaker throughout the chamber’s 234-year history, and has been traditionally used to punish exceptional misconduct. It had been applied to just over 25 lawmakers prior to Tuesday night’s vote, according to the House Archive. But its use has ramped up in recent years.
In 2023 alone, Tlaib is the second person to face censure after Representative Adam Schiff. Both are Democrats, but in 2021 Republican Rep. Paul Gosar was censured and removed from committees over online posts he made, including a violent animated video he shared depicting an anime version of himself killing progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
There is a full 11-year gap between that vote and the one prior. A censure is considered to be just one step below a vote to expel a member from the chamber, but is treated more seriously than a formal reprimand.
Tlaib issued an impassioned defense prior to the vote, accusing those who supported the resolution of double standards in how they approach the Israel-Palestine conflict, and vowing that she “will not be silenced, and I will not let you distort my words.”
“The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinian children sound different to you all. We cannot lose our shared humanity,” she said during often emotional remarks delivered on the House floor. “I can’t believe I have to say this but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings.”
She added: “The refusal of Congress and the administration to acknowledge Palestinian lives is chipping away at my soul. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed, majority were children. But let me be clear: my criticism has always been of the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s actions. It is important to separate people and governments. No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it’s being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”
Tlaib was referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A second censure resolution put forward by Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green was put on hold Tuesday night after fellow Republican Rep. Richard McCormick’s resolution advanced to an ultimately successful final vote.
Jamie Raskin, the Republican representative from Maryland who served as the lead prosecutor in ex-President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, said the effort to censure Tlaib “is about one thing, and one thing only: the punishment of speech.”
“The freedom to speak includes the freedom to disagree, the right to think radically differently from the majority about important things, or else it is no freedom at all,” he said. “The test for each member today is whether you can defend freedom of speech for people when you most fundamentally and vehemently disagree with them.”
The sentiment was echoed by Rep. Ken Buck, who was one of the four Republicans to vote against McCormick’s resolution. He said it was “wrong” to compare Israel to “a repressive terrorist state,” but said “it is also wrong for Congress to take this action at a time when we have serious issues that we face.”
“To take an action, and take down the words, to strike the words, to censure a fellow member, no matter how incorrect we believe she may be, is wrong. We lower ourselves when we try to take action against someone else for their words,” said Buck.
But Rep. Brad Schneider, a Jewish Democratic lawmaker who is a staunch supporter of Israel, said he would vote to penalize Tlaib because of her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which he said is “a rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people.”
“Rep. Tlaib most certainly understands the import and impact of her words and yet still chooses to use them anyway,” he said in a statement.
The Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution are:
1. Steve Cohen (Tennessee)
2. Jim Costa (California)
3. Angie Craig (Minnesota)
4. Donald Davis (North Carolina)
5. Lois Frankel (Florida)
6. Jared Golden (Maine)
7. Dan Goldman (New York)
8. Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey)
9. Greg Landsman (Ohio)
10. Susie Lee (Nevada)
11. Kathy Manning (North Carolina)
12. Jared Moskowitz (Florida)
13. Wiley Nickel (North Carolina)
14. Chris Pappas (New Hampshire)
15. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington)
16. Pat Ryan (New York)
17. Brad Schneider (Illinois)
18. Kim Schrier (Washington)
19. Darren Soto (Florida)
20. Ritchie Torres (New York)
21. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida)
22. Frederica Wilson (Florida)
The Republicans who broke ranks and opposed censuring Tlaib are:
1. Ken Buck (Colorado)
2. John Duarte (California)
3. Thomas Massie (Kentucky)
4. Tom McClintock (California)
