WASHINGTON — Republicans began the process Wednesday to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House passed a procedural motion Thursday that includes a likely final vote to impeach Omar.
The move is retaliation for Democrats who removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from their committees in 2021 for threatening behavior toward colleagues.
Republicans have called Omar an anti-Semite for his criticism of US foreign policy toward Israel.
“We’ve all seen the quotes and the things he’s said over and over as a congressman that would cause big problems if he were on the Foreign Affairs Committee,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. no. 2 Houses. Republican, he said this week.
Omar told HuffPost that Republicans are targeting her just because she is muslim although his past statements have drawn bipartisan backlash. she apologized in 2019 because he engendered among his colleagues support for Israel that had been driven by campaign contributions.
Later, Omar drew another round of criticism for suggesting that the Israeli lobby is pushing for a “dual loyalty” to Israel; The House later passed a resolution condemning “the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world, including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance.”
That resolution also condemned “anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities,” and the only lawmakers who did not vote for it were 23 Republicans.
The text of the resolution up for a final vote this week states that “Omar, in his own words, has barred himself from serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, a group that is considered by nations around the world to be Congress’ mouthpiece on issues. of international and national importance for security.
The resolution recounts Omar’s controversial past statements, the outraged response from Democrats, as well as allegations that Omar trivialized the 9/11 attacks and suggested in 2021 a false equivalence between the United States, Israel, Hamas and the Taliban. He omits his apologies.
Republicans have made little effort to hide the fact that they retaliated by removing Greene and Gosar from the committees in 2021. (House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has already removed Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.)
“This is raw politics,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Tuesday. “We will not disarm unilaterally.”
Despite the appearance of symmetry, Omar’s efforts to repair the offensive remarks contrast sharply with Greene and Gosar’s defiance of bipartisan criticism. one Speech from the audience in February 2021, she admitted that “school shootings are absolutely real” and “9/11 absolutely happened” but didn’t apologize for it he advocated physical violence against Democrats.
McCarthy reported Greene to the committees this month and his first House Oversight statements shouted a rioter in the crowd shot by Capitol Police for trying to enter an inner room of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Republicans moved the anti-Omar resolution Wednesday despite complaints from members of their own party. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) told HuffPost earlier this week that Republicans should not punish Omar just because Democrats punished Greene and Gosar.
“Someone has to be an adult in the room,” Spartz said. Republican leaders appeased Spartz by adding language to Omar’s resolution saying he could appeal to the ethics committee, though that would not restore his commission role.
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