House Democrats Temporarily Changed Rules to Allow President to Be Called a Racist
Democrats called President Donald Trump a racist several times during the House debate on impeachment Wednesday, taking advantage of a temporary rule change they passed earlier this week.
Newly-sworn-in Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), for example, called Trump the “white supremacist-in-chief”:
St. Louis and I rise to say that the 117th Congress has a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives.
The first step in that process is rooting out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist-in-chief. pic.twitter.com/TmYD1bU6ij
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) January 13, 2021
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also chimed in, calling Trump the “racist-in-chief.”
Normally, such language is prohibited by House rules. But House Democrats passed a temporary rule change on Tuesday that applies to debate on H. Res. 21 and H. Res. 24. The former urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump (which he declined to do); the latter is the article of impeachment against President Trump.
The rule change “Provides that the prohibition against personality in debate with respect to references to the President shall not apply during consideration of H. Res. 21 or any special order of business providing for the consideration of H. Res. 24.”
The new rule passed the House Rules Committee along party lines. A congressional source informed Breitbart News on background that the rule would expire by the end of January.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.