House

Chip Roy fires back at Greene over Tlaib censure vote

by Miranda Nazzaro - 11/02/23 10:49 AM ET

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) exchanged jabs with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday morning after Roy voted against Greene’s resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) over her criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.

Greene started the back-and-forth by commenting on Roy’s explanation of his vote against the resolution, in which he said the text was “deeply flawed and made legally and factually unverified claims.”

Greene responded by accusing Roy of voting to kick her out of the far-right Freedom Caucus earlier this year, pointing out that the group still includes “CNN wannabe” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and “vaping groping” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

“[A]nd you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib,” she added. “You hate Trump, certified Biden’s election, and could care less about J6 defendants being persecuted.”

Greene has been a fierce defender of individuals who have been charged or convicted over their roles in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

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Roy responded to Greene’s tweet with a reference to a 2018 post where Greene suggested that a “laser beam or light beam” from “space solar generators,” controlled by a wealthy Jewish family, might be to blame for devastating wildfires in California.

“Tell her to go chase so-called Jewish space lasers if she wants to spend time on that sort of thing,” Roy told The Hill on Thursday.

Roy was one of 23 Republicans who voted to kill Greene’s resolution to censure Tlaib, which accused the Michigan Democrat of “antisemitic activity” and “leading an insurrection” last month. Tlaib participated in an anti-war protest at the Capitol calling for a cease-fire in Israel’s war against militant group Hamas.

Greene responded to Roy’s jab Thursday morning, calling the Texas Republican “Colonel Sanders.”

“Oh shut up Colonel Sanders, you’re not even from Texas, more like the DMV. Chip Roy’s career exist of working for politicians, working for campaigns for politicians, and being a politician himself,” Greene wrote on X. “Unity Party all the way! Which is why you will never hold anyone accountable.”

Since being booted from the Freedom Caucus in July over her repeated attacks on fellow GOP lawmakers, Greene has called the group the “burn-it-all-down caucus” and opposed the hard-line tactics of some of its members who led the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

She has also taken aim at Boebert, a fellow pro-Trump firebrand who came under fire for her behavior at a musical in September that led to her being removed from the theater.

The vote to censure Tlaib failed after the 23 Republicans joined all House Democrats in a 226-186 vote to block the disciplinary resolution from reaching the floor.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American member of Congress.

Israel launched a major bombardment of Hamas-controlled Gaza following the terrorist group’s attacks on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,400 people in Israel dead. More than 8,500 Palestinians in Gaza have died so far in Israel’s subsequent attacks, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry reported.

Tlaib has 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.”

Mychael Schnell contributed.