House votes to condemn Trump's racist tweets

The House voted on Tuesday night to condemn racist language from President Donald Trump, capping off a tumultuous couple of hours on Capitol Hill including a brief time in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was barred from speaking in the chamber.

The vote was 240-187. Four Republicans and one independent -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- supported it as well as all Democrats who voted.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, one of the congresswomen Trump attacked, said Tuesday's vote sent a message to young kids who "are wrestling with the weight of those words now coming from the President, that we hear them, we see them and we never will allow anybody to tell them that this isn't their country."

The resolution denounced the President for racist comments targeting four Democratic congresswomen of color, but tensions surrounding the procedural fight over Pelosi's language halted floor action for a heated debate for more than an hour while her words were deliberated.

Pelosi violated House rules with her choice of words condemning Trump's racist language, leading to a dramatic series of events ahead of the vote. In one such moment of frustration, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri who had been presiding in the chair for much of the fight, blasted Republicans and threw his gavel down, abandoning the chair.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer made the announcement that the House parliamentarian had ruled Pelosi's comments were not in order and should not be used in debate. The breach of decorum led to a vote on whether to strike her words from the record and a separate vote as to whether the speaker should have her speaking privileges for the day reinstated, privileges that are removed if a lawmaker is found not to be in order.

As expected, the Democratic-controlled House voted not to strike Pelosi's comments from the record and to allow Pelosi to speak on the floor of the House again, but the dramatic and unprecedented series of events highlighted the partisan anger ignited by Trump's racist language.