Tipsheet

The Effort to Censure Rashida Tlaib Has Been Killed...and Republicans Helped

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 01, 2023 10:15 PM

On Wednesday night, the House took up a series of votes to censure Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Greene had filed a resolution last week against Tlaib for her anti-semitic comments as well as her encouraging pro-Hamas activists to storm the Cannon House building, while the resolution against Greene was from three months earlier, filed in July by freshman Rep. Becca Blint (D-VT).

Ultimately, the resolution to censure Tlaib was killed when the motion was tabled, and Blint's resolution was withdrawn as well. If the resolution against Greene was meant as a sort of tit-for-tat, that shows you who is politicizing the censure option that is supposedly only to be used in very rare occasions.

Greene, in sharing the roll call from her official X account, referred to so many Republicans voting to table the motion as "pathetic." She also included a list of 13 Republicans who did not vote.

Initially, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) was counted among those who voted to table the motion, but he ended up releasing a statement over his official X account indicating that he inadverently did so, and his vote was changed. It wasn't enough to change the ultimate outcome, though. 

Van Orden's post pointed out that Tlaib "is vocally supportive of the terrorist organization, Hamas," and also added that "I changed my vote to reflect that I do not support antisemites anywhere, especially in Congress."

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The votes from at  least some of the members did not come as a total surprise, however. As Guy highlighted on Tuesday, some members expressed concern about Tlaib's supposed free speech rights, as Republican Rep. Tim Walberg, a fellow Michigander, indicated leading up to and after his vote. 

Others expressed concern with going forward with using such a serious process such as censuring a member. It's worth reminding, though, that several members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have been censured in recent sessions of Congress. This includes Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) being censured in the 117th Congress under Democratic-control, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) being censured back in June. 

Even if some Republican members wouldn't stand up to censuring Tlaib for her anti-semittic remarks and her repeating of falsehoods against Israel, one might expect some Democrats to cross the aisle and be willing to at least vote against tabling the motion.  Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has been particularly vocal in calling out members of the Squad like Tlaib, and others who repeat such narratives. Among those Democrats who voted, all voted in favor of tabling the motion, with 13 Democrats not voting.

When it comes to Tlaib's actions that led to Greene filing a motion to censure her in the first place, Tlaib's anti-semitic remarks don't just have to do with the recent days following the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel. The attack was the bloodiest day in Israel's history, with 1,400 dead, the most Jews killed since the Holocaust. Hamas targeted men, women, children, and the elderly alike for murder, and through disturbing means with the details still continuing to come out. They also engaged in rape, kidnapping, and torture.

Tlaib did not share a statement to her X accounts in the hours or days that followed, and the statement she did provide was shared by a Detroit-based outlet. She also was tight-lipped with the press when it comes to speaking to the horrific acts that Israelis were subject to, including babies being beheaded.

The congresswoman also reposted a false narrative to her political X account on October 17 that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza, when in reality the explosion was the result of misfired terrorist rockers. She repeated that narrative as part of her hysterical remarks outside the Capitol on October 18, with pro-Hamas activists storming the House Cannon Building, leading to hundreds of arrests. Those remarks were enough to earn condemnation from both sides of the aisle in both chambers. As Townhall has covered at length, those supposedly Jewish groups, which are anti-zionist, have been funded by dark money groups.

It was over a week later, on October 25, that Tlaib subsequently acknowledged in a reply to that post, after having previously tripled down on the false narrative, that the intelligence indicated otherwise.

The resolution was not merely going to censure Tlaiib, but also, as the last line read, would indicate that "the House of Representatives condemns support for terrorist organizations."

The House also overwhelmingly voted against meeting the two-thirds threshold required to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY), especially as the House Ethics Committee has indicated it will take action on Santos by or on November 17, still weeks away.