The House voted largely along party lines to pass a resolution condemning President Donald Trump for his racist tweets on Tuesday evening.
However, a clash between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) before the vote threw the floor proceedings into disarray.
While speaking on the House floor, Pelosi urged her colleagues to vote for the resolution after Trump tweeted that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) should “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came.”
“These comments from the White House are disgraceful and disgusting,” Pelosi said. “And those comments are racist.”
“Every single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the President’s racist tweets,” the speaker said later on. “To do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.”
That’s when Collins asked Pelosi to “rephrase her comment.”
“I have cleared my remarks with the parliamentarian before I read them,” Pelosi shot back.
Collins then repeatedly requested that Pelosi’s comments be taken down, claiming they were “unparliamentary.”
GOP Rep. Doug Collins calls for Pelosi's words to be retracted after she called Trump's tweets "racist" pic.twitter.com/TIE0dwRW5S
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 16, 2019
According to the House rules in Jefferson’s Manual, “References to racial or other discrimination on the part of the President are not in order.”
Pelosi refused to retract her words, leading Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), who was presiding, to suspend the session for the lawmakers to come to an agreement. After over an hour, a frustrated Cleaver returned to his seat to announce, “I abandon the chair” and dropped the gavel on the table.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver presiding over House resolution vote to condemn Trump abandons the chair amid uproar over Pelosi calling Trump "racist" on the House floor pic.twitter.com/68JM23sy8N
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 16, 2019
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) took over and the vote to strike Pelosi’s comments failed to pass.
“The Democratic Majority will not allow the Speaker of the House or any Member to be silenced when it comes to calling out dangerous and inappropriate racist language by the President or any official holding a high office of trust on behalf of the American people,” said Hoyer, who voted against striking Pelosi’s words.
“It bears repeating the House prizes decorum because it is a symptom of and a catalyst for a healthy, confident democracy,” Collins said in a statement after the vote.
House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted that Pelosi “broke the rules of the House” and was therefore “no longer permitted to speak on the floor of the House for the rest of the day.”
The House later voted along partly lines to allow Pelosi to continue speaking.
