Could the cover-up be bigger than the crime?
So it’s of little surprise that few people even realized that Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, appeared in the well of the House chamber and was formally admonished by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with a resolution of censure Thursday morning.
The House voted 224-198 with two members voting present to censure Green for his antics during President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress Tuesday night.
Per the resolution, Green had to present himself in the well as Johnson read the resolution before the House for his infractions and officially castigated him, with a rap of the gavel.
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The House voted Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for interrupting President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress two nights earlier. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
But you wouldn’t be alone if you missed it.
That’s because a host of Democrats joined Green near the dais. Johnson banged the gavel, imploring Green’s colleagues to stop. They sang “We Shall Overcome,” drowning out Johnson.
But the deed was done. Green was censured – even if few really saw it. That’s because there’s a trend in Congress for colleagues to join the censured individual in the well of the House and make a ruckus, almost diluting the discipline.
This is why Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., argued that the House should now try to expel Green. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is prepping a resolution to strip the dozens of Democrats who joined Green in the well from their committees. There’s also a move to relieve Green of his committee assignments.
It didn’t used to be this way. There’s an issue of debate about “who fired first.” But discipline in the House over censure has disintegrated markedly in recent years. And so has bipartisan comportment of lawmakers when the president of the other party speaks to a joint session of Congress.
Green became the 29th member of the House censured in the…
