In American political history, congressional censures against sitting lawmakers used to be quite rare. In American history, only 28 U.S. House members have faced such a rebuke, and up until recently, it had only happened once over the last three decades.
Things on Capitol Hill have changed, however, and there were more censures in 2023 than in any year since 1870.
There’s no reason to believe things will be any better in 2024. Roll Call reported:
After a year that saw three censures and an expulsion, the House seems ready to pick up where it left off, as members launch more attempts to punish their colleagues. The latest effort comes from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is taking aim at Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar over disputed remarks she made to a group of Somali Americans.
A Politico report summarized the matter nicely in just nine words: “The censure wars are back, and dumber than ever.”
It’s not necessarily ridiculous to think radical speech from a member can and should lead to a censure resolution. A few years ago, for example, a censure resolution against Republican Rep. Paul Gosar passed with some bipartisan support after the Arizonan posted an animated video online that depicted him killing one of his Democratic colleagues and attacking President Joe Biden.
But in this latest instance, Republicans are targeting Omar over comments she apparently didn’t make.
As my MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem explained, “The right-wing reactions stem from a video of Omar’s speech that went viral on [social media] and features captions translating her remarks. But the source of that translation is unclear, and the language appears to be either poorly translated or deliberately mistranslated, according to multiple fact-checkers.”
It would be problematic enough if Republicans criticized a congresswoman for comments that were misattributed to her, but many in the GOP aren’t just denouncing Omar. For example, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer — a member of the leadership who’s really supposed to know better — called for an ethics investigation into his fellow Minnesotan and encouraged Omar to “resign in disgrace.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene not only introduced a censure resolution targeting Omar over a mistranslated speech, the right-wing Georgian said the Democrat’s misattributed remarks were “literally treason” and grounds for Omar to be “deported.” Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made similar calls.
We’ve apparently reached the point in American politics at which Republicans are so anti-immigrant, some in the party are willing to endorse the deportation of Americans because of social media content that GOP officials didn’t understand.
Asked for comment, Omar said, in reference to Greene, “I hope she finds peace in her mind and heart. That’s insane. Truly insane.”
It’s not yet clear whether the House Republican majority will proceed with a vote on a censure resolution, despite what we now know about the video that misquoted Omar and stripped her words of context.
