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EDITORIAL: Titus, Horsford miss opportunity on Tlaib censure

For just the 25th time in the nation’s history, the House voted to censure one of its own. The move on Wednesday came in response to comments from Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, supporting Hamas terrorists and using a slogan typically used by those seeking to eradicate the state of Israel.

The censure motion passed 234-188, with several Democrats — including Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada — siding with majority Republicans. Rep. Lee deserves credit for casting a difficult vote regarding a colleague. Nevada’s two other Democratic House members — Reps. Dina Titus and Steven Horsford — showed no such courage.

Rep. Tlaib, a member of “The Squad” — a group of hard-left progressive Democrats pushing a toxic combination of identity politics and collectivism — represents a suburban Detroit district with a large Arab population. She is Palestinian American and has long been outspoken in her criticism of the Israeli government. She also favors a cease-fire in the hostilities between Hamas and Israel.

The censure resolution concerned comments Rep. Tlaib made in the wake of the barbaric Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. The congresswoman said Israel imposed an “apartheid system” and this “creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance,” implying that Israel was at fault for the deadly Hamas rampage.

Rep. Tlaib also has embraced use of the “from the river to the sea” slogan, which is a thinly disguised rallying cry for destroying Israel and replacing it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

This is not the first time Rep. Tlaib has run into problems over comments regarding the Middle East. In 2019, Republicans urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “take action” after the Michigan Democrat made controversial comments on “The View” regarding Israel and the Holocaust.

Rep. Tlaib has a right to free speech and to her own beliefs, of course. Yet that doesn’t mean the House must stand by and tolerate her provocations. Rep. “Tlaib has the right to say whatever she wants,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., “But it cannot go unanswered.”

Defenders of Rep. Tlaib predictably played the race and gender cards — these days the last refuge of scoundrels — by accusing Republicans of being “obsessed with policing progressive women of color,” in the words of Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley, D-Mass.

Such drivel is a feeble effort to deflect attention from Rep. Tlaib’s ill-conceived comments.

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada noted on X, “We must reject extremism no matter which side of the aisle it comes from.” Indeed. Unfortunately, Reps. Titus and Horsford did their constituents no favors by placing party loyalty above condemning the incendiary rhetoric of hate and division.

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