House

Greene blasts Republicans who helped tank Tlaib censure

by Miranda Nazzaro - 11/02/23 9:55 AM ET

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday railed against the group of Republicans who helped tank a resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), arguing they “hide behind excuses.”

“Our country is in the worst crisis in it’s history in every category and the Democrats are full blown communists and Republicans can’t even censure Rashida Tlaib,” Greene wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Conservatives on this list hide behind excuses with their white wigs on and quote the constitution.”

The post was accompanied by a photo of the list of 23 Republicans who voted to kill the resolution.

Greene last week moved to force a vote on the censure resolution in connection with Tlaib’s criticism of Israel in the wake of Hamas’s attacks against the country last month.

The nearly two dozen votes were somewhat of a surprise, as House Republicans have criticized Tlaib in the past for her statements about Israel. Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress.

“They claim the reason they voted with the Democrats to table my censure resolution against Rashida Tlaib is bc her full blown support of Hamas, w/words and actions, is her ‘free speech,’ yet they are unwilling to use Congress’s free speech, which is censure, to condemn her!” Greene wrote in a later post.

Greene’s resolution accused Tlaib of “antisemitic activity” after Tlaib expressed concern over the U.S. supplying arms to Israel and called for “lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”

The resolution also accused Tlaib of “leading an insurrection” for her participation in an anti-war protest last month at the Capitol that called for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and several other countries.

Greene said Thursday that the group of Republicans are “clutching their pearls” because she “called Oct. 18 an insurrection,” a reference to the Capitol protests last month.

“The [Department of Justice] is weaponized against conservatives, Trump supporters, and Trump himself and is abusing their power to persecute them with the full weight of the government calling Jan 6th an insurrection,” she continued.

The conservative firebrand argued that if if the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was considered an insurrection, then the Department of Justice “must be forced to prosecute everyone involved on Oct. 18th exactly the same way.”

Claiming the country will continue to implode while “Republicans will do nothing,” Greene said the Republicans will continue hearings, trips to the border and writing “strongly worded letters” rather than harsher actions such as impeachment or censure.

Greene also specifically took aim at Rep. Chip Roy (Texas), one of the 23 Republicans who voted against Tlaib’s censure.

“You voted to kick me out of the freedom caucus, but keep CNN wanna be [Rep] Ken Buck [R-Colo.] and vaping groping [Rep.] Lauren Boerbert [R-Colo.] and you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib,” Greene wrote in response to a post from Roy’s press office about Tlaib. “You hate Trump, certified Biden’s election, and could care lass about [Jan. 6, 2021,] defendants being persecuted.”

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Greene was referring to her ousting from the conservative House Freedom Caucus earlier this year after she supported the debt limit that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden agreed upon to avoid a debt default.

She has since called the group the “burn-it-all-down caucus,” and taken aim at Boebert, who came under fire after her behavior during a theater performance in September led to her being removed from the theater.

Roy responded to Greene’s dig Thursday, telling The Hill, “Tell her to go chase so-called Jewish space lasers if she wants to spend time on that sort of thing,” in reference to a 2018 post where Greene suggested that a “laser beam or light beam” from “space solar generators” could be to blame for the devastating wildfires in California.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

Tags Chip Roy House Freedom Caucus House Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene Rashida Tlaib