Newsman: A House Republicans have voted to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, citing past controversial comments she made about Israel and concerns over her objectivity. The vote was 218-211 along party lines.
In an emotional speech on the House floor Thursday, Omar said she is being targeted for her identity as a Muslim immigrant from Africa.
“Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy? Or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?” she said. “I didn’t come to Congress to be silent.”
Her experiences as an immigrant and refugee who survived a civil war give her a valuable and unique perspective on American foreign policy, she added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday the motion to remove her was not about accountability, but “political revenge.”
“Rep. Omar certainly has made mistakes,” Jeffries told reporters. “Ilhan Omar has apologized. She has indicated that she’ll learn from her mistakes, is working to build bridges … with the Jewish community.”
Democrats rebuked Omar for her past comments at the time, but they united around her ahead of the vote.
In her first term, Omar drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for tweets that invoked antisemitic tropes. She apologized for those tweets but has remained outspoken about the influence of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, on U.S. politics.
The resolution, introduced by Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, stated that Omar “has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security.”
Miller, who is one of two Jewish Republicans in the House, said in a statement that Omar “cannot be an objective decision-maker on the Foreign Affairs Committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people.”
Omar, who herself has faced anti-Muslim bigotry since taking office told reporters last week that the move to remove her from the committee was “purely partisan.”
Republicans cite Democrats’ votes to strip GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar of their committee assignments in 2021 as precedent for the Omar move.
Greene lost her committee assignments over her own history of engaging with antisemitism, conspiracy theories and calls for political violence. Gosar was censured by the House after he shared a cartoon video that showed him murdering Democratic colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Greene and Gosar have regained their committee spots under the new Republican House majority.
GOP leadership also recently blocked California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee.
Some Republicans have been calling for Omar’s removal from the committee for years. But others voiced concerns about due process this week, and with a razor-thin Republican majority, it wasn’t clear that the resolution had enough votes to pass.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., supported the move only after language was added allowing members to appeal their removal to the House Ethics Committee. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., dropped his opposition after a conversation with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Wednesday, in which Buck proposed future removals be handled by a majority vote in the evenly split Ethics Committee.
“He committed to the process of getting something like that done,” Buck said Wednesday, adding that Congress needs to “stop this nonsense of kicking people off committees because it’s just wrong.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., had voiced opposition to the move throughout the week. But Thursday she told reporters she would vote yes after McCarthy committed to creating a process to handle removals through the Ethics Committee in the next 30 days.
