Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has introduced a resolution to force a censure vote on Rep. Cory Mills, a Florida Republican who has been bogged by claims that he is being protected by GOP leadership in the face of multiple allegations of impropriety.
In her resolution, Mace cited various allegations against Mills, including that he benefited from federal contracts while serving in Congress as well as threatened to release sexually explicit images of a former romantic partner.
The GOP lawmaker “brings discredit upon the House,” Mace said Wednesday on the House floor, urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to remove Mills from committees.
Mills, who has not been charged, has denied any wrongdoing and characterized the allegations as unfounded. In October, a Florida judge ordered Mills to not have any contact with his ex-girlfriend. The matter involving federal contracts has been under review by the House Ethics Committee.
Mace’s resolution is privileged, meaning the House must vote on it within two days.
“This is bigger than politics, it’s about right and wrong,” she said in a news release. “And that is why we are forcing a vote on the House floor to censure him. Accountability will not wait.”
Mace pushed for a censure vote on Mills after the House opted against reprimanding Del. Stacey Plaskett, a nonvoting Democratic delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, over her text messages with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing.
The measure narrowly failed Tuesday, with three Republicans voting against it and three others voting present.
The effort to censure Mills had come from Democrats in the past, in retaliation for rebukes against members of their party.
After previously attempting to censure Mills, Democrats once again threatened to censure him and remove him from the Armed Services Committee in response to the effort to reprimand Plaskett. But after that measure failed Tuesday, Democrats retreated from forcing a vote on Mills. The back-and-forth on Mills and Plaskett drew accusations from some Republicans of “backroom deals.” In a floor speech Tuesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., accused Republican and Democratic leadership of “cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption” on both sides. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., also alleged that members of her party who did not support the measure against Plaskett did so to protect Mills. “This backroom deal shit is swampy, wrong and always deserves to be called out,” she wrote on X. In a statement, Mills said: “Let me be perfectly clear, there was no backroom deal, no negotiation, and no quid pro quo of any kind that would’ve forced the Democrats to stand down on that vote against me. Anyone pushing that narrative is just wrong.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News. Recommended
