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 institution’s history. But he’s the fourth Democrat censured by the House since 2023. The fifth overall member to be censured if you include the censure of Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in 2021.
You have to go back to 2010 with former Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., to find a member who was censured. Before that? Try 1983.
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The Rangel censure over abuse of office is significant. Rangel was a towering figure in Congress. A Korean War hero who was left to die on the battlefield. Rangel rose from humble roots in Harlem to become Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The House voted to censure Rangel in late 2010 after a lengthy investigation. After the vote, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asked the New York Democrat to "present himself in the well." With the entire House present, Rangel, ambled to the front of the chamber, his head hung low, hands folded in front as though he were about to pray.
No one said a word. Members from both sides sat in rapt silence as Pelosi read the text of the censure resolution in an uncharacteristically meek tone. Pelosi herself seemed stricken, having to censure her friend and such a vaunted colleague. Pelosi tapped the gavel so lightly at the conclusion of the censure exercise that it almost seemed accidental.
The deed was done.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., faced significant backlash after shouting "you lie" at President Obama during a 2009 speech before a joint session of Congress. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
But when did this all start?
It goes back to September 2009.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted "you lie" at President Barack Obama as he delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress about health care reform. Wilson specifically accused the president of lying when he declared it was "false" that persons in the country illegally would qualify for health benefits.
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Bipartisan lawmakers condemned the outburst immediately. Wilson apologized to then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. In a statement, Wilson said he "let my emotions get the best of me." He characterized the episode as a "town hall moment." By the weekend, Wilson was fundraising off the incident.
Pelosi didn’t want to go any further with a punishment. But her members pushed against the Speaker – and prevailed.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who at the time served as the House Majority Whip, thought Wilson’s off-stage apology wasn’t enough. Clyburn, and fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, believed the House needed to do something to assert its rules of decorum. They believed the verbal assault was tinged with race – directed at the first Black president.
Then-Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., called the "resolution of disapproval" levied against Wilson "an opportunity for us to come together and reject incivility." Since then, Congress has done anything but. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The House is now involved in low-grade guerrilla warfare with periodic flare-ups. There’s routine sniping at the president – regardless of who occupies the office - when he comes to speak to a joint session of Congress. The parties battle over tit-for-tat resolutions of censure and committees.
They’re a long way from turning the page, as Barbara Lee suggested 16 years ago.
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And that’s why Mike Johnson must decide next week if he wants to wage another skirmish in this partisan fracas. He must decide whether to mete out more discipline to Green and those who stood by him in the well.
Or turn the page.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/censure-resolutions-when-double-down-when-turn-page