Updated March 06, 2025 at 12:06 PM ET
The House of Representatives voted 224-198 to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, over his protest on the House floor on Tuesday during President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.
Al Green becomes the 28th lawmaker to ever be censured, one of the most serious ways that Congress can reprimand a lawmaker. However, censured members do not lose any rights or privileges.
The Texas Democrat began shouting at the president during his speech, saying Trump did not have a mandate from the American people. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., warned Green to desist and called for the House to come to order.
Green continued and was ultimately escorted out.
Ten Democrats joined all their Republican colleagues to censure Green. Green presented himself in the well of the chamber and was joined by other Democrats, who began singing, "we shall overcome."
Censuring lawmakers was once considered a rare rebuke, but the number of censured lawmakers has grown in recent years. Since 2021, five members have been censured, a majority of which were Democrats.
On Wednesday night, Green told reporters in the Capitol he "would do it again."
After shaking hands with Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who introduced the censure resolution, Green said his actions weren't done "out of a burst of emotion."
"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," he said. "I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease. I did not, and I did not with intentionality."
Green added: "I think that on some questions, questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will."
Democrats are divided on how to counter Trump
The censure is the latest example of Democrats grappling internally with a unified strategy in pushing back against the Trump administration.
Party leaders asked their members ahead of the address to maintain a dignified and somber presence in the chamber during Trump's speech.
Some members, spurred by supporters who are clamoring for more actions from the minority party, are showing they think bold action that gets lots of social media attention is a better approach.
Not only did Green get removed early on, other Democrats booed, held up signs blasting Trump and his top adviser Elon Musk, and various members left the speech wearing T-shirts that said "resist."
Others argue that becoming the story detracts from keeping the focus on GOP policy and the public affected.
In a letter sent Monday to House Democrats, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., emphasized that focus.
"It is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber," Jeffries wrote. "The House as an institution belongs to the American people, and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied."
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who voted for the censure resolution, posted on X that Democrats need a better strategy.
"Both parties must hold themselves to the same standards we expect from the other side," he wrote. "I am angry about plenty that the President is doing and what he said the other night, but the punch, counterpunch is not working."
Suozzi is seen by some in his party as a blueprint for how Democrats can win in tight districts that are currently controlled by Republicans. He won a special election to replace former Rep. George Santos after the Republican was expelled from the House and held the seat in the general election with a message that mixed support for abortion rights with an emphasis on more border security and support for Israel.
A question of decorum
Newhouse said in his near-decade in Congress, he's never seen the speaker direct the sergeant-at-arms to remove a member from the premises.
"This is not personal to Mr. Green, who is a very amiable fellow, but we must, as members of this institution, leave our rhetoric, calm our energy, make sure our emotions do not take over and conduct ourselves in a way that all of us, not just here in this room but across the country can be proud," Newhouse said Wednesday night on the House floor.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., called GOP criticism of Green "selective outrage" and pointed to occasions when Republican members of the House heckled former President Joe Biden.
"I remember sitting here, and there was an entire heckling session on the Republican side, and we didn't call for all of those members to be removed," McGovern said. "Where were my Republican friends? Nobody apologized for interrupting Joe Biden time and time again, you talk about lack of decorum — go back and look at the tapes, and there was silence on the Republican side."
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., supported the censure and called it a "regrettable situation — not one we enjoy at all."
"I've been disappointed over the years at outbursts that come from this chamber, at whoever the president is. I know people on my side that have done it," he said Wednesday night.
"Mr. Green, I consider him a friend, at least an acquaintance. We don't hang out a lot or on the same committees, but we chat together in the hallways and stuff. I like him," he added. "I've had presidents I've strongly disagreed with the rhetoric or their policies, and I think they've been very harmful in the country. But you don't act that way. You don't completely disrupt the operations of this chamber in the State of the Union address last night for your own theater."
Elena Moore contributed to this report
Copyright 2025 NPR
