Rashida Tlaib Is a Fucking Boss

Protect her at all costs.

Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

Rashida Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress. She is one of just two Muslim women in the House of Representatives. She gets constant death threats. People in the Republican Party are trying to take her down. People in her own party are trying to take her down. Every word she says is intensely scrutinized. There is a target on her back all of the time.

It would be simpler for Tlaib to keep her head down right now. Instead, she tweeted out this video on Friday.

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I am not being hyperbolic when I say that this is one of the most extraordinary attacks I have ever seen a sitting member of Congress level at the leader of their own party. I can’t remember anything remotely like it.

I mean, look at this!

Saying that the leader of your party supported genocide and threatening not to vote for him is beyond bold. It is an invitation to become the enemy of the White House and the Democratic Party apparatus. It will inevitably cause liberals to lose their minds. It will draw accusations of hyperbole, of backing terrorism, of hating Jews, of supporting Trump, of insanity, of evil.

But Joe Biden is supporting genocide right now. Gaza is being subjected to hellish, criminal slaughter right now. This is one of those times where what people do—or don’t do—matters. And Rashida Tlaib has evidently decided that it is more important to be clear about these things than to be polite, or to be a good Democrat.

It is very, very brave, and it is very, very cool. Rashida Tlaib is a fucking boss. Protect her at all costs.