Rashida Tlaib headed for House censure vote for anti-Israel comments

The House will move forward with an effort to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) after lawmakers rejected an effort to table the motion, dealing a blow to Democratic leaders who sought to shield their party member from a formal condemnation over comments she has made related to the conflict in Israel.

Lawmakers voted 208-213 to table the motion, falling short of the simple majority vote needed to kill the legislation on the House floor. The House is scheduled to bring the resolution up for a final vote on Wednesday, according to a whip notice sent to lawmakers.

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Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) filed the motion on Monday, pushing for a censure resolution that would punish Tlaib for her comments while also maintaining her First Amendment rights. The latter effort comes after 23 Republicans joined all Democrats in tabling a similar resolution last week offered by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), citing concerns with the bill’s language.

However, several of those Republicans once again voted to table the motion, arguing its passage could set a dangerous precedent for lawmakers to exercise their freedom of speech. Others brushed it off as a waste of time, insisting Congress should be focused on passing its annual spending bills.

“I’m going to censure the next person who introduces a censure,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) quipped when asked if he’d vote in favor of the censure resolution. Massie voted to table the motion.

McCormick’s resolution narrowly focuses on Tlaib’s comments related to the recent warfare in Israel. The resolution chastised the Michigan Democrat for her remarks in the days following the Hamas attack, particularly her comments blaming Israel for a deadly airstrike at a Christian hospital in Gaza on Oct. 18.

U.S. intelligence officials later reported evidence the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but Tlaib repeatedly refused to retract her accusations.

The resolution also points to Tlaib’s most recent controversy stemming from a video she posted over the weekend featuring pro-Palestinian protesters marching in cities across the country chanting the phrase “from the river to the sea,” referring to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River that includes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Tlaib defended the use of the phrase, arguing it is an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence” and not “death, destruction, or hate.” However, the phrase prompted widespread backlash from several members of Tlaib’s own party, who pointed to the slogan’s adoption by the Hamas terrorist group to advocate the destruction of Israel.

Despite disagreeing with the use of the phrase, Democratic leaders still urged party members to support the motion to table, accusing Republicans of using the resolutions as a “distraction” from the government spending deadline next week.

The House is scheduled to vote on a second censure resolution later Tuesday that was offered by Greene, although it is unclear whether that one will garner enough support to surpass the two-thirds threshold due to its extensive reach of comments made by Tlaib over the last several years.

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Tlaib has repeatedly pushed back on efforts to censure her, accusing her colleagues of taking time and effort away from “saving lives” in Gaza.

“Many of them have shown me that Palestinian lives simply do not matter to them, but I still do not police their rhetoric or actions,” Tlaib said in a statement on Tuesday. “Rather than acknowledge the voice and perspective of the only Palestinian American in Congress, my colleagues have resorted to distorting my positions in resolutions filled with obvious lies. I have repeatedly denounced the horrific targeting and killing of civilians by Hamas and the Israeli government, and have mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost.”