WASHINGTON – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has fulfilled his vow to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House voted 218 to 211 Thursday along mostly partisan lines for a resolution condemning Omar’s statements about Israel and barring him from serving on the foreign affairs committee.
Omar, one of the few Muslims in Congress and a former refugee from Somalia, strongly condemned the decision.
“This debate today is about who will be Americans. What opinions should we have, should we be considered Americans,” Omar said on the House floor. “This is the debate, Madam Speaker. There is this idea that you suspect that you are an immigrant. Or if you’re from a certain part of the world or a certain skin color or Muslim.”
The vote is payback for Democrats who removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from the committee in 2021 over threatening social media posts.
Greene and Gosar returned to the committee this week. Greene immediately used his oversight committee chair to mourn what he called the “assassination” by Capitol Police of rioters who tried to breach the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) likened Omar’s vote to a baseball pitcher who deliberately threw the ball at batters because the other team’s pitcher had “plunked” his teammate.
“This is raw politics,” Roy said Tuesday.
“I am a Muslim. I am an immigrant. And, interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m a target?”
– Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
Omar has often been the target of bigoted rhetoric from conservatives, including from Republican lawmakers who said he belonged to the “Jihad squad” and described him as a suicide bomber.
He noted on Thursday that Republicans had wrongly claimed former President Barack Obama was African-born and Muslim.
“Because the label is fake [the] the first and only president of the United States, a Muslim, an African immigrant, somehow makes him less American,” said Omar. “Well, I’m a Muslim. I’m an immigrant. And, interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m a target?”
Omar drew bipartisan attention in 2019 for comments on Israel in which he suggested US support depended on campaign contributions from Israel-focused lobbyists pushing for “dual allegiance” to the Jewish state. Omar apologized and joined his colleagues in supporting a resolution condemning antisemitism and dual loyalty, but he continued to anger Republicans with his critical comments on Israeli and US foreign policy.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DNY) said Thursday that Omar was wrong, but also apologized.
“Ilhan Omar apologizes,” Jeffries said at a press conference. “This is not about accountability. This is about political revenge.