House Republicans have voted to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who was removed from the chamber after he disrupted President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
The House voted 224-198 Thursday morning, with 10 Democrats siding with the Republicans to censure Green: Reps. Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Tom Suozzi of New York.
Two Democrats, including Green himself, voted present.
After the vote, a group of Democrats, alongside Green, sang “We Shall Overcome” on the House floor as Speaker Mike Johnson banged his gavel and told members to come to order.
A motion to table the censure resolution, introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., had failed along party lines Wednesday. Johnson later chastised Green in a statement, calling the protest “shameful and egregious.”
Green made waves early in Trump’s speech when the president crowed about his 2024 election win. Green stood up and shouted that Trump had no mandate, waving his cane at him. After the Texas congressman ignored Johnson’s initial warning, the speaker called for Green’s removal from the chamber.
“If you get in the way, if you’re arrested, then you’ve got to be willing to suffer the consequences,” Green told reporters the next day. “I did it from my heart, and I will suffer whatever the consequences are. But truthfully, I would do it again.”
Green’s protest stood in stark contrast to the response of most of his fellow Democrats, who instead silently protested Trump during his speech to little effect.
Censure is a serious rebuke of a congressional lawmaker, but it does not affect their privileges or rights as a House member. Other representatives who have been censured in the past decade are Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who posted an anime-style video online that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for comments about the investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for criticism of Israel; and then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., for pulling a fire alarm in a congressional building while the House was in session.