/ CBS News
Rep. Al Green escorted out of House chamber
Washington — House Republicans are moving to punish Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas after he heckled President Trump on Tuesday during his address to a joint session of Congress.
Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure Green for the disruption. Newhouse is one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The resolution was introduced as “privileged,” which forces the House to vote on the matter within two legislative days. It says Green’s behavior “was a breach of proper conduct.”
Democrats tried to kill the resolution, but the effort was rejected in a party-line vote with 209 Democrats voting in favor and 211 Republicans opposed. One Democrat voted present. The censure resolution could get a floor vote as soon as Thursday.
Green was quickly removed from the House chamber just minutes into Mr. Trump’s speech after he stood and raised his cane in the president’s direction and shouted. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, warned Green to take his seat “maintain decorum,” but the Texas Democrat continued. Johnson then directed the sergeant at arms to “restore order” and “remove this gentleman from the chamber.”
After his removal, Green said he was “willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me.”
“I’m not fighting the punishment,” he said.
Green reiterated that he would accept an admonishment on Wednesday, telling reporters, “I’m not angry with the speaker. I’m not angry with the officers. I’m not upset with the members who are going to bring the motions of resolution to sanction.” He said his disruption was not premeditated and came out of “spontaneity.” Green also said he had not yet had a chance to speak with Democratic leadership about the incident.
If Green is censured, the resolution calls for him to “present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure” while the speaker reads the resolution.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus also said Wednesday its members would be introducing a resolution to censure Green.
Johnson said Tuesday after Mr. Trump’s speech that Green “should be censured,” calling the disruption “a spectacle that was not necessary.”
“He’s made history in a terrible way,” Johnson told reporters. “If they want to make a 77-year-old heckling congressman the face of their resistance, if that’s the Democrat Party, so be it. But we will not tolerate it on the House floor.”
During debate on the resolution Wednesday afternoon, Newhouse condemned Green’s heckling as “one of the most shameful acts that I’ve ever seen on this floor,” but said the reprimand was not personal.
“In my short time in Congress, which is just about a decade now, I have never, ever seen a member of the House, by the direction of the speaker, escorted from the premises by the sergeant at arms,” Newhouse said.
Green walked over to Newhouse to shake his hand before speaking on the floor to defend himself.
“The president indicated that he had a mandate. I said to the president, ‘You do not have a mandate to cut Medicaid.’ I have constituents who need Medicaid. They will suffer and some will die if they don’t get Medicaid. I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease. I did not, and I did not with intentionality. It was not done out of a burst of emotion. I was emotional about it, but I did it with intentionality,” Green said. “I would do it again.”
Nikole Killion and Jaala Brown contributed to this report.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
