Nevada Rep. Susie Lee joins House vote to censure Michigan Rep. Tlaib
WASHINGTON — Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., was one of 22 House Democrats to vote with majority Republicans late Tuesday to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian-American in Congress — an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
“Members of Congress hold heightened responsibility to present the public with the truth, especially when disinformation can fuel further violence and instability at home and across the globe,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday.
The 234-188 tally was a punishment one step below expulsion from the House.
Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus, D-Nev., voted with most Democrats against censure. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., voted with Republicans to censure Tlaib.
The debate on the censure resolution on Tuesday afternoon was emotional and intense.
Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia pushed the measure in response to what he called Tlaib’s promotion of antisemitic rhetoric. He said she has “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7.”
With other Democrats standing by her side, Tlaib defended her stance, saying she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words.” She added that her criticism of the Jewish state has always been directed toward its government and its leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That criticism reached new heights after the Oct. 7 attack by the terrorist group Hamas left more than 1,400 Israelis slaughtered. Tlaib, who has family in the West Bank, came under heavy reproval after she failed to immediately condemn Hamas after the attack.
All Democrats initially stood by Tlaib and helped defeat the first censure resolution against her last week. But since then, many of her colleagues, including prominent Jewish members, have become more conflicted about her rhetoric about the war, especially because of a slogan she has used frequently that is widely seen as calling for the eradication of Israel.
Lee said Tlaib ignored U.S. intelligence about the explosion at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, continued to disinform the public and refused to correct the record.
Ultimately, more than 20 of them joined Republicans on Tuesday night to censure her after an effort to shelve the measure failed earlier in the day.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., the lone Democrat to vote with Republicans on Tuesday to advance the censure resolution, said he believed it was important to debate the slogan “from the river to the sea.”
“It is nothing else but the call for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews,” the Jewish Democrat said. “I will always defend the right to free speech. Tlaib has the right to say whatever she wants.”
He added, “But it cannot go unanswered.”
Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jessica Hill contributed to this report.