House votes to censure Al Green for disrupting Trump speech

The House voted Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for his protest during President Trump’s address to Congress this week — a disruptive display that prompted his removal from the House chamber.

The House adopted the measure in a largely party-line 224-198-2 vote, making Green the 28th member of the House to receive the congressional rebuke. The censure resolution dubbed Green’s display “a breach of proper conduct.”

Ten Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of the censure. Green voted "present."

The censure vote made for a stunning scene on the House floor. When Green presented himself in the well of the House for a reading of the censure resolution — as is customary for such a rebuke — the Texas congressman, surrounded by other Democrats, began singing “We Shall Overcome.” Republicans called for order in the chamber.

After the official censure, Republican and Democratic lawmakers began shouting at one another — a symbol of the partisan politics on Capitol Hill.

“You’re next,” one Democrat exclaimed. At one point, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), “Al was wrong,” prompting her to respond, “Your members do the same thing.”

The punishment came less than 48 hours after Green, during Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday — the first of his second term — stood up, waved his cane in the air and yelled back at the president, interrupting his speech within the first few minutes.

The protest began when Trump claimed he had a “mandate” from the American people following November’s elections, leading Green to exclaim that the president does not have a mandate at all. At one point, the longtime Texas Democrat said Trump did not have such authority to cut Medicaid, as some Republicans eye slashes to the social safety net program.

After a warning from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and a directive to “take your seat,” Green continued his vocal protest, prompting the Speaker to direct the sergeant-at-arms to remove him from the chamber. Republicans sang “hey, hey, hey, goodbye,” as Green walked off the House floor.

“We take no pleasure in this,” Johnson told reporters shortly before the vote Thursday. “I gave repeated warnings to Rep. Green to stand down and to sit down and he refused to do it, he chose to deliberately violate House rules in a manner that we think is probably unprecedented in history, interrupting the message of a president of the United States, who is an honored guest.”

“I think this expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy,” he added. “Many of our colleagues have argued it should go even further. But I hope that he will acknowledge his mistake.”

A House censure is a formal reprimand taken by a vote of the House. It is considered a mark on the record of a lawmaker but does not typically carry consequences beyond having the member stand in the well of the House as the resolution detailing their transgressions is read aloud.

Green has remained defiant in the wake of the protest, and in anticipation of the punishment. Minutes after his removal, he told reporters, “It’s worth it.” And Thursday, shortly before the censure vote, Green’s official account on the social platform X said he was being penalized for standing up to Trump.

“During the 10:00 hour ET, Congressman Al Green will be censured this morning for standing up to President Trump,” the social media post read.

The behavior, however, was in direct conflict with the conduct House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) urged his lawmakers to uphold. In a letter to House Democrats on Monday, the leader urged “a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” signaling that decorum should be maintained.

Jeffries stopped short of criticizing Green on Wednesday, defending the conduct of the “majority” of his members.

Still, however, plenty of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle found fault with Green’s display.

“Absolutely shameful,” Johnson said of Green’s display shortly after Tuesday night’s speech. “He should be censured. It’s a spectacle that was not necessary. He’s made history in a terrible way… 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.”

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), a centrist Democrat, called Green’s conduct “boneheaded.”

“I think it was wrong,” Suozzi told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” on Wednesday night. “I’m an old-school, traditional type person. I don’t like it when Republicans interrupt Democratic presidents, and I don’t like it when Democrats interrupt Republican presidents. So I just think it was a boneheaded move.”

Updated at 10:47 a.m. EST

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