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- Rep. Rashida Tlaib will face a censure vote Wednesday after a Democratic effort to quash it failed.
- Republicans forced another vote after Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort failed last week.
- In contrast to MTG's resolution, this one does not accuse Tlaib of "leading an insurrection."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan will face a censure vote by the House of Representatives on Wednesday after a Democratic effort to quash the resolution failed by a 213-208 vote on Tuesday.
Six House Republicans voted with Democrats, but attendance issues on the Democratic side allowed the resolution to move forward with a majority of votes anyway.
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois voted against tabling the resolution, while Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania — the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee — voted present.
Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who's the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, faces a resolution from Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia accusing her of "promoting false narratives" about the October 7 Hamas attack and for "calling for the destruction" of Israel.
It's a resolution more narrowly-tailored than the one put forward by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia last week, which accused Tlaib of "leading an insurrection" on Capitol Hill because she spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest and contains various other misrepresentations of Tlaib's statements.
Greene has since replaced the word "insurrection" in her resolution with "illegal occupation" and is set to force another vote — which will be the third vote to censure Tlaib in the last week — on Tuesday evening. In the days since her last resolution failed, she has raged at the 23 Republicans who voted with Democrats to table it.
McCormick's resolution is focused on three points in particular:
- Tlaib's use of the word "resistance" in her statement on the Hamas attack.
- Her claim that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, despite contradictory evidence.
- Her use of the phrase "from the river to the sea."
Tlaib's October 8 statement angered her colleagues for its perceived lack of focus on the violence of Hamas — she argued that the "suffocating, dehumanizing conditions" in the Palestinian territories could "lead to resistance."
She has also angered even some progressive Jewish colleagues by accusing Israel of last month's bombing Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, though she later released a statement acknowledging that the Gaza Health Ministry's claims were in doubt and called for an independent investigation.
The slogan "from the river to the sea" has a complicated and contested meaning, with many viewing it as a call to abolish the state of Israel. Many Palestinians, however, use it instead as an aspirational call for freedom and equality.
Some Democrats, including Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Ritchie Torres of New York, have indicated they will vote for the censure resolution when it comes to the floor.
Here are the six Republicans that voted against moving forward with the resolution:
- Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado
- Rep. John Duarte of California
- Rep. Mike Garcia of California
- Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky
- Rep. Tom McClintock of California
- Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana