Democrats fail to protect Rashida Tlaib, House votes to censure her for antisemitism

The House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, who issued a series of hateful remarks against Israel. The vote was 234 to 188 after 22 Democrats joined the 212 Republicans who voted in favor of the motion.

While the censure vote is mostly a symbolic measure of rebuke, it is a formal wake-up call for her antisemitic remarks.

The censure resolution, pushed and drafted by Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Georgia, cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday afternoon as the House rejected a motion to set aside his proposal. Hours later, the final vote concluded with censure.

Tlaib, wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian garment, sat in the front row of the House next to progressive Representatives Cori Bush, D-Missouri, and Summer Lee, D-Pennsylvania. During her remarks, Tlaib appeared to cry as she was comforted by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has always expressed her opposition to the Israeli government; however, after the war initiated by the Hamas terrorist group, she has uttered phrases that even her Democratic colleagues considered antisemitic.

McCormick's resolution would censure Tlaib for "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."

The votes come exactly one month after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and almost a week after the House voted to reject another resolution from Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, which sought to censure Tlaib for considering that her language was too incendiary. Tlaib has referred to the phrase "from the river to the sea," which she said represented Palestinian freedom, while most consider it a call for the extermination of Israel. The phrase has also been adopted by the terrorist group Hamas.