Nearly a dozen Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives joined Republicans in voting to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he interrupted President Donald Trump’s address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.
In a 224-198 vote Thursday, the Republican-controlled House voted to censure Green. All Republicans present in the chamber voted in favor of the resolution along with 10 Democrats: Reps. Ami Bera, D-Calif., Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Jim Costa, D-Calif., Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Marie Perez, D-Wash., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.
Green voted “present” on the resolution, as did Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala. All other Democrats who voted opposed it.
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House Resolution 189, authored by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., called for the censure of Green over what was described as a “breach of proper conduct” in the form of “numerous disruptions” to Trump’s speech Tuesday. Green was removed from the House Tuesday, after defying the order of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to sit down and cease his interruptions.
Green defended his actions when speaking to reporters following his ejection from the chamber Tuesday, explaining that he was shouting that the president had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid during his interruptions. “It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up,” he said.
Green has emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal critics. He introduced multiple articles of impeachment against Trump in 2017. He first called for the impeachment of Trump after the firing of FBI Director James Comey in what he called an act of “obstruction of a lawful investigation” into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in addition to filing separate articles for engaging in what he called “white supremacy, sexism, bigotry, hatred, xenophobia, race-baiting and racism.”
More recently, Green vowed to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump early last month after the president unveiled a plan that would involve the U.S. taking control of the Gaza Strip. He condemned the idea as a “dastardly” form of “ethnic cleansing.”
As for the consequences faced by Green as a result of his disruption of the president’s speech Tuesday, the Congressional Research Service defines a “censure” as a “majority vote in the House on a resolution disapproving a Member’s conduct, generally with the additional requirement that the Member stand at the ‘well’ of the House chamber to receive a verbal rebuke and reading of the resolution by the Speaker.”
As explained in the report, “There is no specific disqualification or express consequence provided in the House Rules after a Member has been ‘censured’” besides “the political ignominy of being formally and publicly admonished and deprecated by one’s colleagues.”
According to data compiled by the House, 27 members of the lower chamber have been censured since 1832. That figure doesn’t include Green, meaning the total has now increased to 28.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
