Far-left “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib survived an attempt by House Republicans to censure her over her critical remarks against Israel and accusations that she led an anti-Israel “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol complex.
The resolution to rebuke Ms. Tlaib, Michigan Democrat, was tabled in a bipartisan vote of 222-186. It was one of two dueling censure votes Wednesday night as the chamber engaged in a partisan battle over punishing members for incendiary comments.
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican and author of the resolution targeting Ms. Tlaib, also faced a censure motion, filed by a Democrat. But, in an apparent detente, the resolution was removed from the House schedule as soon as Ms. Tlaib’s censure was killed.
The 23 Republican lawmakers who voted with Democrats to table or kill the rebuke of Ms. Tlaib included members of the Michigan delegation and those who cited concerns over punishing free speech.
Ms. Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, has been repeatedly criticized for making antisemitic comments since her election to Congress in 2018.
She gave a speech to pro-Palestinian protesters before they marched to the Capitol. In the speech, Ms. Tlaib burst into tears describing children outside of a Gaza hospital that was hit by a missile.
She also weathered a flood of criticism after posting on social media that Israel was responsible for striking the hospital. U.S. intelligence and assessments from other countries corroborated the Jewish state’s claim that an errant missile fired by Hamas terrorists caused the blast.
Ms. Tlaib has yet to remove the post.
She called Ms. Greene’s attempts to censure her “unhinged” and “deeply Islamophobic.”
Ms. Greene’s resolution against Ms. Tlaib honed in on the lawmaker’s well-documented criticism of Israel and defense of Palestinians before and after the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas against the Jewish state.
The resolution laid out a timeline of Ms. Tlaib’s inflammatory rhetoric, which included Ms. Tlaib’s comment from 2019 that “there’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out.”
The resolution also included Ms. Tlaib’s social media posting in 2020 of an illustrated version of the quote “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which is a Palestine Liberation Organization saying that describes the elimination of Israel.
The resolution accused Ms. Tlaib of leading “an insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol complex in October, when protesters opposed to Israel’s attack on Hamas swarmed a House office building. The resolution condemned her comments after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel in which she demanded that Israel’s blockade be lifted, the “occupation” be ended and the “apartheid system” be dismantled.
Censure has been a rare form of punishment in the House and is only one step removed from expelling a lawmaker from the chamber. But it has been used with greater frequency by both parties in recent years.
Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Republican, and Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, were censured in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
The House has censured 25 lawmakers in the more than two-century history of Congress.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.