Rep. Chrissy Houlahan on why she voted to censure fellow Democrat Al Green after outburst at Trump’s address to Congress
“It’s frustrating because Al Green’s statement was true. It wasn’t provocative or offensive. But I think each one of us had to make decisions about how we were going to comport ourselves.”
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat who represents Chester County, joined nine other members of her party Thursday in a vote to censure fellow Democratic Rep. Al Green for his outbursts during President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
Green, of Texas, stood up at the very beginning of Trump’s speech after the president boasted about his electoral victory, calling it a mandate. He yelled, “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” while pointing his cane at the president to punctuate his point.
Green was removed by the sergeant at arms.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) justified the censure Wednesday by saying Green “chose to deliberately violate House rules in a manner that we think is probably unprecedented in history — interrupting a message of a president of the United States, who is an honored guest.”
But most Democrats — including all of the party’s other representatives from Pennsylvania and from New Jersey — voted against the censure and some broke into “We Shall Overcome,” on the floor of the House after the vote.
After the contentious vote, freshman Rep. Ryan MacKenzie (R., Pa.) became involved in a shouting match with progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), who was censured in 2023 after her criticism of Israel spurred backlash.
Censuring a member is basically a public reprimand, but doing so has been historically rare. Green, who defended his actions on Wednesday, is the fifth member of Congress to be censured in this decade. He joins a list that includes Rep. Paul Gosar (R., Ariz.), who was censured for sharing a video depicting violence against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and then-President Joe Biden in 2021, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), who pulled a Capitol fire alarm ahead of a key vote in 2023.
Houlahan talked to The Inquirer about what went into her decision to censure a colleague, which came after she voted for a motion to table the vote. She also discussed struggles Democrats have had mounting unified opposition to Trump. Her responses have been edited slightly for length and clarity.
Why did you vote to table the motion and then vote yes on censuring Rep. Al Green?
“I voted to table that because I think we have much, much better things to do with our time than to continue to do this tit-for-tat nonsense with one another. That being said, the motion to table failed, so we don’t have the opportunity to not vote on this. And I believe we need to recognize that we have rules in the House of Representatives and we have standards of decorum that we all presumably agree to, and we all need to agree to those standards so we can get the work for the people done and so we can not be a banana republic.”
On a perceived ‘misapplication’ of the censure:
“After the vote I pulled Speaker [Johnson] to the side and had a very‚ very strong conversation with him where I explained I voted in favor but I am not OK with arbitrary and capricious applications of the same rule. There was no censure or sanction of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.). He said, ‘Well, she just wore a hat.’ She also yelled at the president of the United States [Biden in 2024], and I don’t believe it’s OK that she did not have same treatment.
“And I think it’s absolute hypocrisy that people after the vote were standing there yelling at Mr. Green when their own colleagues have done very, very similar things, not wearing masks when it was mandated, wearing MAGA hats when there are literally no hats allowed on the floor. We had to make a special exception for wearing hijabs. It’s insane. … We need to behave like grown-ups and stop the madness.”
How can Democrats present a more united opposition to Trump?
“It’s definitely a struggle of what is the appropriate response, and I don’t know that I can claim any sort of solution or authoritative action. I have tried really hard to take each vote separately and try to conduct myself in a way I think my community would want me to. Immediately following the vote I met with a three-star general in charge of the Defense Intelligence Agency to talk about cuts there, and the consequences of that to our intelligence community, and that’s my way of working through all these atrocities this administration is leveling.”
Have you talked to Rep. Green or do you plan to?
“It was a really, really, really hard vote for me. I sat there until the very last moment figuring out where I would land. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him. I think it’s my duty to do that, and when I see him I will, and I hope that he will understand.
“And it’s frustrating because Al Green’s statement was true. It wasn’t provocative or offensive. It was the truth. But I think each one of us had to make decisions about how we were going to comport ourselves and what was appropriate, and I know each colleague on both sides made those choices, and each one of us knows there are consequences to those choices.”