The House is poised to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib for “promoting false narratives” about the war between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas, after Democrats failed to block the resolution in a Tuesday vote.
The House voted 213-208 against tabling Rep. Rich McCormick’s censure resolution against Ms. Tlaib over the Michigan Democrat’s public statements and social media posts that defended Hamas and blamed Israel and the U.S. for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and 29 Americans.
One Democrat voted with the GOP and another Democrat voted “present.”
Lawmakers will vote Wednesday on the censure motion. It’s expected to pass and will do so less than a week after Ms. Tlaib dodged a previous attempt at rebuke, authored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican. Ms. Greene on Monday reintroduced her censure resolution against Ms. Tlaib and a vote is expected later Tuesday.
Last week’s censure motion to censure Ms. Tlaib failed thanks to “no” votes by 23 Republicans, including Mr. McCormick, Georgia Republican and member of the House Ethics Committee.
But since then, Ms. Tlaib has further angered both GOP and Democratic lawmakers with anti-Israel comments. She posted a video on X over the weekend that said President Biden “supported the genocide of the Palestinian people,” and included the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which Republicans said “is widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people to replace it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”
Mr. McCormick’s resolution accuses Ms. Tlaib of defending the “brutal rapes, murders, be-headings, and kidnappings—including of Americans—by Hamas as justified ‘resistance’ to the ‘apartheid state’” of Israel.
“Representative Tlaib has undermined U.S. interests with her statements and must be censured,” Mr. McCormick said.
Mr. McCormick cited her Oct. 8 statement claiming that the Oct. 7 attack on the Israeli people was partly attributable to the U.S. security aid provided to Israel. He cited language in Ms. Greene’s last resolution, which referenced an anti-war protest organized by Jewish groups that Ms. Tlaib engaged in, which accused her of “leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol.”
Ms. Greene’s measure last week also charged Ms. Tlaib with “antisemitic activity” and “sympathizing with terrorist organizations.”
Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said Tuesday that censuring Ms. Tlaib would amount to “the punishment of speech,” and fell outside the historic purpose of the punishment which has typically been aimed at actions of lawmakers, not words.
Censure has been a rare punishment but has been wielded more frequently in the increasingly fractious and partisan House.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, was censured by the GOP majority earlier this year over using his previous position as chair of the Intelligence Committee to make false allegations that former President Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to help him win the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In 2021, Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Republican, was censured mostly by Democrats for posting an anime video on social media showing himself committing a violent act against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, and President Biden. This was largely passed by Democrats, 223 to 207.
Prior to Mr. Schiff and Mr. Gosar, the last lawmaker censured by the House was Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, who was rebuked in a bipartisan vote in 2010 over misusing his office for personal gain.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.