GOP Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee formally moved Thursday to force Democrats who prevented the public reading of a resolution censuring Rep. Al Green to face a punishment of their own.
The House had earlier voted 224 to 198 to censure Green as punishment for disrupting President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday.
Ten Democratic lawmakers joined with Republicans to support the censure resolution. Two Democrats voted “present”: Green, a Texas congressman with 20 years in the House; and Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama, a lawmaker in his first term.
However, as House Speaker Mike Johnson was announcing passage of the resolution, a group of Democratic lawmakers gathered around Green in the well of the House and sang, “We Shall Overcome” — an anthem of the civil rights movement.
Johnson repeatedly tried to gavel the House to order, but the Democratic lawmakers continued to sing and would not disperse.