Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., made history Thursday afternoon for being the first Palestinian-American woman sworn into Congress.

Hours later, she made headlines for simply swearing at a Washington, D.C., bar.

At a reception Thursday night for the progressive group MoveOn.org, Tlaib vowed that the new Democratic-controlled House would be focusing on ousting President Donald Trump from office.

“Don’t you ever, ever, let anybody take away your roots, your culture, who you are. Ever,” Tlaib told the crowd in the packed space. “Because when you (hang onto those things), people love you and you win. And when your son looks at you and says, ‘Mama, look. You won. Bullies don’t win.’


“And I said, ‘Baby, they don’t,’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf—–.”

The crowd inside the State Room bar, near the Capitol, responded to Tlaib’s remarks with applause, cheers and shouts of approval, according to a widely shared video taken by immigration activist Nestor Ruiz.

Tlaib’s comments were also soon met with outrage from the right. In a pair of tweets, former Trump special assistant Boris Epshteyn called Tlaib’s comments “disgusting” and “sad.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders blasted the remarks as proof Democrats had “no solutions for America” and suggested Tlaib was simply trying to boost her own political career.

“Look, you’re not going to impeach this president when he’s had two of the most successful years that any president has had in modern history,” Sanders said Friday morning on “Fox & Friends.” “The only reason they want to come after this president is because they know they can’t beat him.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., criticized Tlaib’s word choice.

“Look at the brand-new elected congresswoman and her language of what she says to her son in a rally that she thought was private last night,” McCarthy said on Fox. “Their whole focus here is to try and attack this president when we’re trying to move America forward.”


It’s not clear if Tlaib thought the MoveOn reception was private. Several journalists were in attendance and multiple activists were filming her. Representatives for MoveOn did not respond to a request for comment.

Regardless, the congresswoman seemed to shrug off judgments about her speech the following morning.

“I will always speak truth to power,” Tlaib tweeted Friday, adding the hashtag #unapologeticallyMe.

In a subsequent tweet, she added: “This is not just about Donald Trump. This is about all of us. In the face of this constitutional crisis, we must rise.”

I will always speak truth to power. #unapologeticallyMe — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 4, 2019

This is not just about Donald Trump. This is about all of us. In the face of this constitutional crisis, we must rise. — Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 4, 2019

Some of her new Democratic colleagues played down Tlaib’s comments Friday morning.

“Well, passions are running high. Let’s just leave it at that, OK?” Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., said on CNN, before echoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in saying lawmakers needed to let special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election play out.

“Then we’ll take it from there,”Bustos added.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., also cautioned against talking about impeachment before there was evidence to support it.

“I don’t really like that kind of language, but more to the point, I disagree with what she said,” Nadler said on CNN. “It is too early to talk about that intelligently. We have to follow the facts. We have to get the facts. That’s why it’s important to protect the Mueller investigation.”

Tlaib made the remarks Thursday night shortly after the House’s late-night votes, at a reception for new members sponsored by MoveOn.


She was mobbed when she arrived; an emcee had to ask the crowd to clear out the hallway, as a wave of selfie-cravers had clogged it up.

—

The Washington Post’s David Weigel and John Wagner contributed to this report.