Dem Congresswoman Looks ‘Unstable’ in Viral Footage From 2016 Trump Event

A video has resurfaced showing Rep. Rashida Tlaib jumping up and down and screaming as she is forcibly forcibly removed from a 2016 campaign event by Donald Trump. 

In the 10-second clip, security guards escort Tlaib out of Trump’s August speech to the Detroit Economic Forum, with one holding her arm. Near the exit, the Michigan Democrat turns to assembled supporters of then-candidate Trump and yells, “You guys are crazy.”

“You’re an animal,” a man retorts. “Get a job.”

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As Tlaib later explained in an op-ed about the incident for the Detroit Free Press, she had joined a group of activists in disrupting the address.

She said that she felt compelled to cause a scene because of Trump’s “hate-filled rhetoric and tactics,” and compared herself to Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks:

I have heard critics calling it unbecoming of a former state legislator. Well, I believe it is unbecoming of any American to not stand up to Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric and tactics. Growing up the daughter of Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, I was taught about how Walter Reuther, Coleman Young, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo and other great Detroiters risked their lives for justice. I still remember at the age of 12, learning that segregation had been permitted only a couple of decades before I was born and that a woman’s right to vote was not even a century old. But it was great Americans who stood up, some dying for the cause, to make our country better.

Tlaib went on to explain that she disagrees with Trump too strongly to be courteous to him:

Courteous behavior can’t be reserved for someone who labels hardworking Mexican immigrants who have come to pursue the American Dream as “rapists.” Social niceties are not in order for men who would turn away refugees fleeing for their lives based on their faith to have them suffer in camps. And complacency is not warranted for a presidential candidate who denigrates a mother and father who have lost their child in the ultimate sacrifice of military service.

Tlaib called “unstable” after she screams at Trump supporters

Turning her own words against her, conservative commentators suggested that Tlaib might be the crazy one.

.@RashidaTlaib looks unstable. https://t.co/biXMgwGsi5

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 20, 2019

Some noted that Tlaib’s emotional outbursts continued after she was elected to the House in 2018, joining Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota as the first two Muslim women to win congressional seats. Shortly after being sworn in, Tlaib famously vowed of Trump, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker.”

Tlaib refused to apologize for her profane threat, setting a standard for her “Squad,” which also comprises progressive freshmen “women of color” Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.  The lawmakers have since taken to dismissing criticism of them as bigoted, whether it comes from Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Trump.

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Still, days after Trump suggested they ought to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” Pelosi led the passage of a resolution condemning Trump’s comments. Embracing the tactics of her new caucus members, the California Democrat defied House rules by accusing Trump of racism.

Pelosi’s words were ruled out of order. But the House then voted along party lines not to strike them from the record and, separately, to restore her speaking privileges.

“`WATCH: Dem Congresswoman Looks ‘Unstable’ in Viral Footage From 2016 Trump Event

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Pluralist

Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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