GOP kicks Omar off committee
Party-line vote a response to Democratic leadership removing Gosar, Greene
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-minn.) was kicked off the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a party-line vote that followed a contentious debate on the House floor Thursday morning that included yelling and Omar defending herself, on the verge of tears.
House Republicans had set their sights on removing Omar after she had made what Speaker Kevin Mccarthy (R-calif.) recently described as “repeated antisemitic and antiamerican remarks” throughout her time as a member of the House. The resolution passed 218-211 on party lines, with only Republican Rep. David Joyce (R-ohio), voting present. He cast a similar vote when Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-ariz.) was removed from his committee under Democratic leadership, citing then that his service on the House Ethics Committee could pose a conflict of interest.
Democrats have aggressively pushed back on Republicans trying to compare the rebuke of Omar to those of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA.) and Gosar, saying that the offenses are not the same.
“I had a member of the Republican caucus threaten my life and … the Republican caucus rewarded him with one of the most prestigious committee assignments in this Congress. Don’t tell me this is about consistency,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez (D-N.Y.) said on the floor, her voice rising as fellow Democrats clapped. “This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America.”
Gosar had posted a video on social media that depicted him killing Ocasio-cortez, and Greene was removed from her committees after social media postings approving of violence toward Democratic leaders.
The resolution Thursday explicitly condemned Omar for using an antisemitic trope to suggest Israel’s allies in U.S. politics were motivated by money rather than principle when she in 2019 tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
The resolution also disapproved of Omar’s critiques of Israel and her comparison of actions by the United States to those of terrorist groups. She later clarified those comments, saying, “I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems.”
During the vote, liberal Democrats taunted Republicans by repeatedly chanting “order” and “close it” when time expired to consider the resolution and there were not enough votes for it to pass. Republicans have argued for regular order since taking over the majority, including closing votes when time expired, but kept Thursday’s vote open for several minutes to allow for their colleagues to put the vote over the edge.
When the vote total was declared, Greene stood up and clapped while other hard-right Republicans did the same. Ocasio-cortez shouted across the aisle in frustration, though it was unclear what she said.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), while noting that Omar has made mistakes, forcefully defended her in a Thursday morning news conference, saying: “What’s going to take place on the floor today is not a public policy debate. It’s not about accountability. It’s about political revenge.”
Omar, a refugee from Somalia, is one of the first Muslim women to serve in the House of Representatives and often faces death threats and other threats of violence. Her office told The Washington Post that violent threats had increased considerably since she has been in the news again.