WASHINGTON (AP) — Mr. Civility had had enough.
“We don’t ever, ever want to pass up, it seems, an opportunity to escalate,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., said from the House speaker’s chair Tuesday afternoon after a fight broke out over a resolution to condemn President Donald Trump’s “racist tweets.”
The House went silent as the mild-mannered Cleaver, a seven-term House member, swept a pointed finger across the chamber, saying he dared anyone to say he had been “unfair.”
“We want to just fight,” Cleaver, a pastor, said, balling his fists to demonstrate the exchanges. Then, in a move that House veterans said they had never seen before, he declared, “I abandon the chair,” put down the gavel and strode off.
Condemnation has thundered in over three days from Democrats and a few Republicans. Trump offered no apologies, adding that the four congresswomen can leave the United States if they have complaints.
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia led the GOP effort to have her words stricken from the record with a rare procedural rebuke. Then Cleaver spoke, gaveled and walked off, leaving colleagues familiar with his style stunned.