Rashida Tlaib's sons dab on the floor of Congress. (Photo: Twitter)
A government shutdown didn't stop metro Detroit's new Congressional representatives from handling business and having a little fun during a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Thursday.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib's (D-Detroit) sons brought a taste of Detroit to the festivities, presumably making history by doing the dab on the House floor. They stood alongside their mother as she cast her first vote in Congress, helping name Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) House speaker.
Tlaib's attire marked another first: She wore a traditional Palestinian garment known as a thobe. It was stitched by her mother, who was born in the region.
"Wearing my mother's thobe is a gift to her," Tlaib told Glamour. "Just like any immigrant parent, she wants her children to succeed, but without giving up our roots and culture. No matter where our parents are from, you can see the connection they're making in me wearing my mother's ethnic dress. It's exciting."
As for her boys' dance move mimicking the fierce cough of someone who's just hit a THC concentrate — that was unplanned. She tells the Detroit Free Press they were supposed to say something about Pelosi representing the nation's children.
While Tlaib, as the first Muslim women elected to the House, has generated more buzz than her freshman colleagues, she wasn't the only one making headlines.
Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) was among just 10 incoming Democrats who did not vote for Pelosi as speaker. Slotkin was making good on a campaign promise. She flipped Michigan's 8th Congressional District from red to blue by a less than 3-point margin.
Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), meanwhile, had already begun working by the time she was sworn in. The Free Press reports she's been trying to get the State Department to appoint someone specifically to oversee the case of a Novi man detained in Russia on espionage charges.
Also newly sworn in to the House was Rep. Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township), who takes on the mantle of his father, longtime former Rep. Sandy Levin.
