The House voted Thursday morning to censure Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green after he interrupted President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this week.
Ten Democrats joined all Republican members in voting to censure Green. Two Democrats — including Green himself — voted present.
House Speaker Mike Johnson directed sergeant-at-arms staff to remove Green from the House chamber less than five minutes into Trump’s address Tuesday night, after Green stood up and said Trump has “no mandate to cut Medicaid.”
Green’s protest drew harsh criticism from multiple Republicans in Congress, which came to a head Thursday morning with the vote to censure Green. The resolution was introduced by Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse.
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Ahead of the vote, Green stood by his decision to interrupt the address.
“For a guy who’s about to be censured, I’m doing alright,” Green told NOTUS Thursday morning. And on the floor Wednesday morning, he said he “did it with intentionality” and “would do it again.”
“I will suffer whatever the consequences are, because I don’t believe that in the richest country in the world, people should be without health care,” Green said during his floor speech.
Democratic Reps. Ami Bera, Ed Case, Jim Costa, Laura Gillen, Jim Himes, Chrissy Houlahan, Marcy Kaptur, Jared Moskowitz, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Tom Suozzi voted to censure Green. Rep. Shomari Figures joined Green in voting present. Several of the Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution have branded themselves as centrist members of the party, and most did not openly protest during Trump’s address.
In a speech Thursday after the vote on the House floor, Green said his “incivility” was in response to Trump’s “incivility.”
“When the president of the United States, right there at that podium, addressed the members of Congress, Democrats seated on this side — seated — many of them saying nothing,” Green said.
After the resolution passed on Thursday, Green and a group of Democrats — many of whom also protested with signs, shirts and walkouts during Trump’s address — stood in the House chamber and sang “We Shall Overcome.”
Newhouse said on the floor Wednesday that he introduced the censure resolution because members “must maintain a standard in the House of Representatives,” and members who do not adhere to the House speaker’s directives “must continue to be reprimanded.”
Newhouse told NOTUS that Green’s actions were different from Republicans who have interrupted presidential addresses in the past, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.
“I’ve never seen a member removed from the House floor by the sergeant-at-arms. … I mean, he just wouldn’t stop,” Newhouse said. “Just wouldn’t stop, which is a whole different comparison. Not that I’m proud of some of the past actions by members, like I said, it just seemed like we came to a point where we’ve got to draw a line.”
Democrats criticized Republicans for bringing the censure resolution despite not doing the same for Republican members who protested past presidential addresses.
“The virtue signaling we’re seeing from Republicans right now is insane,” Rep. Jim McGovern said on the House floor Wednesday. “Who was it that heckled President Biden, standing up and ranting like lunatics? Republicans.”
And Houlahan, despite voting to censure Green, said in a post on X that she had a conversation with Johnson after the vote and urged him to apply the same standards to Republican members.
“I called Speaker Johnson out on his and his party’s hypocrisy and reminded him of the many instances in which Republicans have blatantly broken the rules of conduct without consequence,” the post said. “He told me if he punished each instance, he’d have to censure half the House. I suggested he do just that. Rules are rules.”
Green’s censure is the first in the House since 2020, when members voted to censure Arizona Rep. David Schweikert for violations related to campaign finance.
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Em Luetkemeyer, Mark Alfred and Reese Gorman contributed reporting.
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