WASHINGTON, D. C. – U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo was among 10 Democrats who voted Thursday with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to censure a Texas Democrat who disrupted President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress.
After the vote, Kaptur said she voted to censure Al Green, just as she voted to censure South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson for disrupting a 2009 speech by President Barack Obama because she doesn’t “believe such forms of protest should occur in the House Chamber during a Joint Address to Congress.
“We cannot be distracted from the real, devastating cuts being wrought on Social Security, the Veterans Administration, or so many vital federal government services,” Kaptur’s statement continued. “Congressman Green understood the consequences of his actions and shared with the public that he was willing to take accountability to stand up for the people we are here to represent. I will continue to fight with him to protect these programs, and the Democratic values we believe in.”
Green stood up repeatedly during Trump’s Tuesday speech, waving his cane and shouting, as Republicans chanted “USA” to drown out his words. After a few minutes, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, ordered security to escort Green from the House of Representatives chambers, as Republicans sang the chorus of the 1969 song “Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye.”
On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to censure Green by a 224-198 margin, with Green and Alabama Democrat Shomari Figures voting “present.”
As Johnson tried to read the censure resolution to Green after the vote, a group of Democrats surrounded him on the House of Representatives floor, singing the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Johnson gave up on reading the resolution and adjourned the session.
Green said later his actions were motivated by Trump making claims that the 2024 presidential election gave him a mandate. “I wanted him to know that he didn’t have a mandate,” Green said in a House of Representatives floor speech.
Kaptur represents a congressional district that Ohio Republicans who controlled the state’s redistricting process redrew to favor their party. The National Republican Congressional Committee regularly issues cookie-cutter press statements denouncing votes by Kaptur and other Democrats it deems electorally vulnerable.
After Tuesday’s speech, it put out statements that tried to tie Kaptur and other targeted Democrats to what it described as a “full-blown meltdown” by Democrats during Trump’s speech.
After Thursday’s vote, it put out statements that denounced two other targeted Ohio Democrats for opposing Green’s censure, describing the votes by Akron’s Emilia Sykes and Cincinnati’s Greg Landsman as “completely out of touch with the will” of their constituents.”
It didn’t put out a statement about Kaptur.
