Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is staring down a Republican censure effort for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) — who is disabled and uses a wheelchair — as “Governor Hot Wheels.”
Why it matters: Once a rarely used tool, censure is becoming the immediate go-to method for members of the House’s majority party to punish members of the minority.
- There have been five censures since 2021: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was censured when Democrats held the House, and four House Democrats have been censured since Republicans took control in 2023.
- Until 2021, the last time the House had voted to censure one of its own members was in 2010. Before that, 1983.
Driving the news: “Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now,” Crockett said of Abbott during remarks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday.
- She added: “And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey.”
- Crockett’s office declined to comment for this story.
What’s happening: Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) is planning to introduce a resolution censuring Crockett, Weber’s office confirmed to Axios. Fox News was first to report the censure resolution.
- The two-page resolution, a copy of which was obtained by Axios, calls Crockett’s remarks “unbecoming of a Member of Congress” and “discriminatory in nature.”
- It also says they were “the latest in a series of inappropriate comments,” pointing to Crockett saying Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has a “bad built, bleach blonde, butch body” during an Oversight Committee hearing last year.
Zoom out: Crockett would be the second House Democrat censured just this year and the fifth since Republicans took back the House majority in 2023.
- All House Republicans and 10 Democrats voted to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) earlier this month for disrupting President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.
- Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) were all censured in 2023.
