Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed for Tlaib resolution – Many in politics and media, including CNN’s Jake Tapper, have slammed the unseriousness of the Georgia Congresswoman’s effort to rebuke her Michigan counterpart officially.
Marjorie Taylor Greene – What Did She Do Now?
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is the only Palestinian-American in Congress, has been frequently admonished since the start of the current hostility between Israel and Hamas, and this has included some rebukes from her side of the aisle.
One could imagine a scenario in which a resolution rebuking Tlaib could pass with some Democratic support. However, a censure resolution unveiled last week by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), does not appear to have been treated with seriousness by many people.
Per NBC News, Greene’s resolution accuses Tlaib of “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.” Greene does not, however, make the case that the Michigan Congresswoman has done any of all three.
In particular, the “leading an insurrection” part is highly misleading. The event in question, a protest held by the pro-Palestinian Jewish organizations Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, was not an insurrection, nor did Tlaib “lead” or “instigate it.” Rep. Tlaib spoke at a rally that day. Still, there is no indication that she was a leader or organizer of the event, which later entailed members of the groups entering the lobby of a Congressional office building, and some of them getting arrested as a form of civil disobedience.
It is clear that Greene is drawing a contrast with the January 6 insurrection, the perpetrators of which she has been a leading defender. But there are numerous key differences between that and what happened at the Capitol office building last week- the latter event was much smaller, was not violent, did not include anyone breaking windows or breaking into offices of members of Congress, and it was not geared towards blocking a proceeding of the Congress.
And Greene, of course, has been accused of antisemitic activity herself.
One Democratic aide told Axios, of Greene’s resolution, that it was “way too easy for Democrats to vote against it now. If a normal person did it, we’d be in a tough spot.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper, reporting from Israel, slammed Greene’s resolution in a CNN segment over the weekend.
Of the resolution, Tapper said that appeared to have been written by someone who “learned about the Arab-Israeli conflict maybe 10 minutes before, who maybe didn’t even have access to Wikipedia.” He added that Greene’s resolution “twists a bunch of things that she said beyond recognition.” Tapper also said that the resolution seems “much more focused on January 6 than it does on October 7.”
“Antisemitism is not a cudgel to be used against people for political points, nor is Islamophobia or racism or anti-gay behavior or misogyny or any other kind of bigotry,” Tapper said while wrapping up his show. “Just over three weeks ago, 1,400 people, mostly Jews, mostly civilians, were slaughtered here in some of the cruelest and most unimaginable ways in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.” Tapper even closed his commentary with a rare expletive.
Meanwhile, Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) pushed last week to force a vote on a resolution she had introduced earlier this year to censure Greene, over dozens of outrageous comments the Georgia Congresswoman has made over the years. Balint’s resolution ripped Greene for having “repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred.”
On the specific antisemitism front, Balint’s resolution had slammed Greene for appearing at a white nationalist conference, for comparing COVID-era mandates to Nazi treatment of Jews, as well as when she “peddled a vile antisemitic trope when she claimed that wildfires in California were caused by space lasers operated by members of the Jewish community.”
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles over the years that focus on politics, technology, and the economy for over a decade.
