Highlights: The vote was something of a surprise: Tlaib, a staunch liberal who’s been harshly critical of Israel, has few fans in the GOP when it comes to Middle Eastern politics. It’s unclear why several Republicans came to her rescue during Wednesday’s vote.
The censure resolution — sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — had accused Tlaib of “leading an insurrection” for her participation in an anti-war protest last month at the Capitol, organized by Jewish groups, which featured scores of arrests.
Pro-Israel Democrats, who might have been inclined to censure Tlaib’s comments, had hammered Greene for her inaccurate characterization of a peace protest — albeit a rowdy one — and for sensationalizing Tlaib’s role in orchestrating it. They were also leery that Greene’s “insurrectionist” language had trivialized the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Trump.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
House lawmakers voted Wednesday to torpedo a resolution censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for her harsh criticisms of Israel in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attacks last month.
The censure resolution — sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — had accused Tlaib of “leading an insurrection” for her participation in an anti-war protest last month at the Capitol, organized by Jewish groups, which featured scores of arrests.
Greene’s three-page censure resolution charged Tlaib with “antisemitic activity” and “sympathizing with terrorist organizations.” It listed a number of Tlaib’s criticisms of Israel in recent years, the most recent being a statement she released one day after Hamas’s attack on Israel that called for “lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”
Greene last week moved to force a vote on the censure resolution, a rarely used procedural gambit that compelled leadership — under the helm of newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)
That new trend was on full display last week, when first-term Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) moved to force a vote on a resolution censuring Greene shortly after the Georgia Republican did the same for her legislation penalizing Tlaib.
“The fact that on the very first day of his leadership, he lets Marjorie Taylor Greene bring to the floor a resolution that is riddled with lies and falsehoods on my colleague, it won’t stand,” Balint told reporters last week.
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