Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) was temporarily banned from speaking on the House floor Wednesday by Republicans in the chamber, not for suggesting that Donald Trump is guilty of things he hasn’t been convicted of but simply for listing the particulars of his many ongoing legal battles.
McGovern took issue with being admonished for mentioning that Trump is on trial, while a Republican had previously referred to Trump’s ongoing hush-money trial as a “sham” without any pushback from the chair.
“Has the chair determined it’s unparliamentary to state a fact?” McGovern asked, to which the presiding chair Rep. Jerry Carl (R-AL), responded that he could not determine the veracity of a statement, and warned McGovern to “avoid personalities.”
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“We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts and we’re being prevented from even acknowledging it,” McGovern said. “These are not alternative facts, these are real facts.”
McGovern proceeded to run through the laundry list of allegations against the former president.
“A candidate for president of the United States is on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law. He’s also charged with conspiring to overturn the election. He’s also charged with stealing classified information, and a jury already found him liable for rape in a civil court. And yet, in this Republican-controlled House, it’s okay to talk about that trial, but you have to call it a sham.”
Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) interjected. “Take down his words,” she demanded. “Mr. Speaker, I demand that his words be taken down!”
All of McGovern’s statement above was reportedly ruled out of order, and stricken from the record.
McGovern later posted on X, confirming that he’d been banned from speaking for the rest of the day.
“I didn't say he was guilty, I just stated the fact that they exist—and for that I was silenced,” he wrote.
