WASHINGTON — Lawmakers won’t punish Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for leading a purported “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol last month.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday evening rejected a formal censure resolution against Tlaib that had been introduced last week by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Tlaib addressed a group of several hundred Jewish peace activists near the west side of the Capitol last month, where they called for an Israeli cease-fire in Gaza. Activists then entered a public Capitol office building, continued their demonstration and were arrested by Capitol police.
Greene’s resolution dubiously claimed that Tlaib “led an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex,” thus endangering lawmakers and interrupting their work. The resolution also accused Tlaib of hating America and of antisemitism for her criticism of Israel.
Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, called the resolution deeply Islamophobic.
“I am proud to stand in solidarity with Jewish peace advocates calling for a ceasefire and an end to the violence,” Tlaib said last week. “I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced. ”
Greene’s use of the term “insurrection” was a clear effort to trivialize the January 2021 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters seeking to void Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Rioters pushed past police barricades, assaulted officers and stormed the Capitol after smashing through windows. More than 1,000 people have been charged with crimes related to those events, but Greene has claimed the people arrested are “political prisoners.”
Last month’s demonstration in the Cannon House Office Building resulted in 308 arrests, including three for assaulting police and 305 for illegally demonstrating. The demonstration did not disrupt official business inside the Capitol.
