Randy Fine censure threat could spark tit-for-tat cycle

Source: The Hill

02/22/26 5:00 PM ET


The House could soon be forced into another tit-for-tat cycle of members attempting to discipline each other by forcing votes on the House floor — and derailing GOP leaders’ control of the chamber. A massive wave of Democrats have called to formally censure Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) and remove him from his committees over a post he made that said “if they force us to choose,” he would choose dogs over Muslims. Democrats roundly decried the post as Islamophobic.

Democrats have not revealed an official censure resolution yet, but House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) strongly indicated Democrats would make such a move. “Get your members under control, because if you don’t, we will,” Jeffries said in a message to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) during a Wednesday press conference.

Fine, though, is warning that he will counter any such move. Any member can make a privileged motion to require the House to vote on a censure resolution within two legislative days. “I don’t start fights, but I finish them — and if they go down that road, they won’t like where it ends,” Fine said in an interview with The Hill on Thursday. Asked if that means forcing votes on censures of Democrats, Fine said: “If that’s the road they want to go down, yeah, absolutely.”

That will likely be unwelcome to Johnson, who has not publicly addressed Fine’s post. The Speaker said of the last censure war cycle in November: “Obviously, I’m not in favor of this. I think censure is an extraordinary remedy, extraordinary cases. It should be used sparingly.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5749468-randy-fine-censure-house/