The House voted 224-198 on Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday night.
Ten Democrats joined Republicans in the rebuke, and two members, including Green, voted present. Democrats had attempted on Wednesday to block the censure measure but failed. The vote comes as the already-fractured party grapples with how best to voice their opposition to the president and Republicans’ policies while outnumbered in both chambers of Congress.
According to the Clerk for the House of Representatives, Democrats who voted to censure Green include: Reps. Ami Bera and Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.; Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; and Marie Perez, D-Wash.
In a statement following Thursday’s vote, Suozzi said that Americans’ focus being on the removal from the address of a congressman rather than on the pressing issues of protecting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, rising costs and “fixing immigration” is “not helpful.” He added that he’s “serious” about building bipartisan coalitions to tackle those issues.
“Both parties must hold themselves to the same standards we expect from the other side,” Suozzi said. “I am angry about plenty that the president is doing and what he said the other night, but the punch, counterpunch is not working.”
Green interrupted Trump’s speech after the president referred to his electoral victory as a “mandate” from the American people. He repeatedly shouted that Trump has “no mandate to cut Medicaid” while pointing his gilded cane toward the podium.
After the 11-term Democrat’s third interjection and prior warnings to maintain decorum, House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove Green from the chamber. His ejection was met with cheers from his Republican colleagues.
Lawmakers have previously interrupted a presidential address but were not removed from the chamber. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., both interrupted then President Joe Biden’s speech in 2022. Greene also interjected during Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address.
After Thursday’s censure vote, the Texas congressman was called to the well for a public reading of the censure resolution. He and other surrounding Democrats began singing the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome,” but the session devolved into a screaming match after Johnson finished the reading, according to ABC News.
Following his ejection Tuesday, Green told reporters that he was working on articles of impeachment against the president and did not know if he would face any formal punishment.
“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up,” he added.
Read more
about the Democratic Party
