WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green for heckling President Donald Trump during the joint address to Congress this week.

After the vote, a group of members gathered around the Texas Democrat on the House floor and sang “We Shall Overcome,” a song long associated with civil rights protests.

The House agreed to the resolution by a vote of 224-198, with two members, Green and Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., voting “present.” Ten Democrats voted in favor of the censure.

It capped a tumultuous two days for Green, who stood up early in Trump’s nearly 100-minute speech, waved his cane at the president and shouted, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” When he refused to sit down, Green was removed from the chamber.

His actions prompted an outcry from Republicans.

During debate on the floor Wednesday, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., called Green’s actions “one of the most shameful acts” he has witnessed in the House.

Newhouse, a moderate who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, introduced the privileged censure resolution on which the House ultimately voted Thursday. Others, including Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Troy Nehls, R-Texas, expressed interest in introducing dueling censure measures, but Newhouse’s won out.

Crane said Wednesday he hadn’t spoken to Newhouse, but was supportive as long as it resulted in Green’s censure.

“You can boo. You can cheer. All of us are fine with that. Even hold up your stupid little signs,” Crane said. “But if you’re going to stand up and yell for a couple minutes, after the speaker of the House has warned you repeatedly to sit down, then you need to be censured.”

House rules allow resolutions relating to certain matters, such as censures, to be considered privileged. When a member gives notice of their intent to raise a question of the privileges of the House, leadership must schedule a vote on the resolution within two legislative days.

The rules of the House define questions of privilege as “those affecting the rights of the House collectively, its safety, dignity, and the integrity of its proceedings” and “those affecting the rights, reputation, and conduct of Members, Delegates, or the Resident Commissioner, individually, in their representative capacity only.”

“The conduct of the Representative from Texas disrupted the proceedings of the joint address and was a breach of proper conduct,” Newhouse’s resolution reads.

Democratic members who spoke in defense of Green on the floor Wednesday largely used their time to attack Trump’s policies, like defunding cancer research and firing veterans from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, who in the past has expressed his frustration over the use of privileged resolutions to censure members, characterized the move as an attempt to appease Trump.

“Republicans jump into action after someone has the guts to stand up and call BS. Less than 24 hours later, and here they are on the floor with an emergency censure to soothe Donald Trump’s fragile ego,” McGovern said.

After the vote Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested it was an exercise in hypocrisy. “I think it’s important to underscore that for Republicans and a party that love to talk about protecting free speech, they are swift and they love to lay down the hammer in order to punish anyone whose speech they disagree with,” said the New York Democrat, who skipped Trump’s address on Tuesday and voted against the censure.

Some Democrats, however, joined their Republican colleagues in condemning Green: Ami Bera, D-Calif., Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Jim Costa, D-Calif., Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, D-Wash., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

Sen. John Fetterman, the idiosyncratic Pennsylvania Democrat, had some of the harshest criticism for his party’s protests from the chamber, which in addition to Green’s interjections, included coordinated outfits and signs with slogans like “Musk steals” and “save Medicaid.”

“A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained,” Fetterman posted on X Wednesday. “We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to — and it may not be the winning message.”

A Democratic motion to table the censure resolution fell short on party lines Wednesday afternoon, clearing the way for the House to vote on the measure Thursday.

“I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me,” Green told reporters after being removed from the chamber Tuesday. “I’ll accept the punishment. But it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.”

Green’s actions were unprecedented, even as the normally solemn ceremony has become more raucous in the modern era. South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson famously shouted “you lie” during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in 2009 in what at the time was viewed as a major breach of decorum. Wilson was the subject of a resolution of disapproval that passed the House, and he apologized to Obama.

Such outbursts have become more common in recent years, but none led to the removal of a member. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of Trump’s speech in 2020. And Republicans heckled President Joe Biden in each of his final three addresses to Congress.

Censure in the House is a kind of formal rebuke that, unlike expulsion, carries no actual penalty. The ritual often involves the censured member standing in the well of the House as the pronouncement is read. While historically rare, it’s become an increasingly common way for lawmakers to score partisan points.

The use of congressional accountability tools — including censure, impeachment and expulsion — has increased significantly in the last several congresses, according to an analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

In 2023, Reps. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., were all censured. Prior to that, the most recent censures took place in 2021 and 2010, with Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., being the targets.

Otherwise, no member had been censured since 1983, when Reps. Daniel B. Crane, R-Ill., and Gerry Studds, D-Mass., were censured for sexual conduct with House pages.

During debate on Wednesday, some Republicans, including Newhouse and California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, said they weren’t mad, just disappointed.

Newhouse said the measure wasn’t personal and called Green a “very amiable fellow.” LaMalfa said he counted Green as a friend and took no pleasure in the vote.

“I like him. I hope he likes me too,” LaMalfa said.

Green took the reprimand on the chin.

Before speaking on the floor during Wednesday’s debate, Green shook Newhouse’s hand. He said he was “willing to suffer the consequences” of heckling Trump.

“I don’t believe that in the richest country in the world people should be without good health care,” Green said.

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