Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) lost her bid to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) late Wednesday night — and promptly picked a fight with one of the 23 fellow Republicans who opposed her effort.
After Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) slammed the “feckless” Tlaib censure proposal for making “legally and factually unverified claims,” Greene shot back on social media that he should “shut up,” calling him “Colonel Sanders” in an apparent reference to his facial hair. The Greene-Roy tiff was only the latest sign of lingering fissures within the House GOP after its nearly month-long descent into speaker-less chaos.
But it also underscored the unique nature of the 23-member GOP rebellion against Greene over censuring Tlaib for what the Georgia firebrand claimed were “antisemitic comments” by the Michigan progressive. Roy, like most other Republicans who voted against censuring Tlaib, is miles away from aligning with her calls for awareness of the Palestinian plight.
The group of 23 defies easy characterization, spanning the ideological spectrum from those in districts carried by President Joe Biden — like Rep. John Duarte (Calif.) — to arch-conservative Freedom Caucus members — like Rep. Morgan Griffith (Va.). Notably, no GOP members of the Ethics Committee opposed the censure resolution.
Greene slammed GOP opponents of her censure measure as conservatives who “hide behind excuses with their white wigs on and quote the constitution. In reality, they fell into five separate categories.
Those with Jan. 6 complaints: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was one of the members who voted to table Greene’s measure, which likened Tlaib’s participation in a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza to an “insurrection.”
“January 6 protestors were not insurrectionists, nor were those led by Rep. Tlaib,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I voted to table a censure resolution of Rep Tlaib in part because it was modeled after legislation that condemned J6 protestors.”
Those with legal complaints: Several Republicans raised concerns with the resolution’s rhetoric as well as whether Tlaib’s comments could legally be construed to meet the definition of an “insurrection.” Among them was Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), who agreed there were “good reasons” to table the resolution while condemning Tlaib’s comments on Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Those who are retiring : Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who announced his retirement Wednesday, and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) were among those who voted to table Greene’s resolution.
Michiganders: A number of Tlaib’s home-state colleagues — Republicans Bill Huizenga, John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg — opposed Greene’s effort.
Those who messed up: Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) voted to table the effort but did so by mistake, according to a statement he posted.
Tlaib responded to the vote by pointing back to a prior statement that Greene’s resolution was “unhinged” and “deeply Islamophbic.”
