Ten Democrats join Republicans to vote to censure Al Green over Trump speech

The House voted on Thursday to censure the Texas representative Al Green for disrupting Trump’s joint session address, with a handful of Democrats voting to condemn the Democratic member along with Republicans.

The House voted 224-198, with 10 Democrats voting in favor of the censure, which accuses Green of a “breach of proper conduct”.

During the early part of Trump’s speech on Tuesday, Green repeatedly shouted “He has no mandate!” as the president touted his electoral victory, prompting the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, to order his removal – an extraordinary measure in congressional history.

Green becomes the 28th member of Congress to be censured.

Green, 77, represents a predominantly Black Houston district, and has been a strong figure of opposition to Trump in Washington since becoming the first congressman to call for his impeachment in 2017. Last month, he filed fresh impeachment articles against the newly re-elected president.

In a speech on the House floor ahead of the vote, Green indicated that he did not regret his demonstration.

“I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease,” Green said. “I did not, and I did not with intentionality. It was not done out of a burst of emotion.”

Unlike expulsion, which removes a member from Congress, censure serves as a formal condemnation without stripping voting rights or ejecting the representative.

It is unclear if Green will retain his committee assignments. The Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib kept her positions after her November 2023 censure over comments related to Israel and Palestine.

Former New York representative Jamaal Bowman, who was censured for pulling a fire alarm during a crucial vote, also kept his committee posts, as did former California representative and now senator Adam Schiff, condemned for his role in Trump-Russia investigations months earlier.

This contrasts with Representative Paul Gosar’s 2021 censure for posting an animated video depicting violence against congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then president Joe Biden. Gosar’s censure cost him his committee seats until Republicans regained the House majority.

With the last five censures happening within the last five years, the once-rare measure has evolved into a partisan weapon wielded by whichever party holds power.

During the 2024 State of the Union, the Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, clad in Maga gear, heckled Biden by calling him a “liar” after he said some Republicans wanted to sunset Medicare and Medicaid. She was not removed from the House floor during the speech.

During Trump’s address, other Democrats displayed protest signs reading “Musk steals”, “false”, and “save Medicare”, referencing Elon Musk’s appointment to lead government spending cuts. In one confrontation, the Republican Lance Gooden grabbed and threw in the air the representative Melanie Stansbury’s sign reading: “This is not normal.”

Ahead of the censure vote, Green continued his defiance on social media.

“Last night I stood up for those who need Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security,” he wrote on X. “Democrats will never abandon the fight to make sure every American has a safe, healthy, and financially secure life.”