GOP removes Rep. Omar of the Foreign Affairs Committee, referring to her comments about Israel
WASHINGTON – The Republican-led House voted along party lines Thursday to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from House Foreign Affairs Committee over previous comments she made about Israel, which members of both parties considered anti-Semitic.
Omar said on the floor Thursday that the vote to remove her is about more than silencing her voice.
“This debate today is about who should be an American,” she said. “I am an American. An American who was sent here by his constituents to represent them in Congress.”
“Is anyone surprised that I’m being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I’m somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy?” she said in the chamber before the vote.
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The resolution passed 218-211 with one GOP member — David Joyce of Ohio — voting in absentia.
Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., had opposed removing Omar in the run-up to the vote, but told reporters Thursday she changed her position after Rep. Kevin McCarthy agreed that future removals would first run through the ethics committee. NPR reported.
Republican leaders have threatened to take action against Omar over a series of controversial statements she has made since coming to Capitol Hill in 2019.
But the GOP calls grew louder last year when the Democrat-led House stripped Republicans Marjorie Taylor GreeneR-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., of committee assignments for threatening postings on social media. Both GOP lawmakers have been reinstated in committee this congress.
Omar was born in Somalia and fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States, according to her congressional biography. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family and lived in the city she now represents in Congress.
A prominent progressive in Congress, Omar, who is Muslim, has been a fierce critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and routinely questions US aid to the Middle East ally.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized the move to block Omar from serving on the committee, calling the congresswoman a “highly respected member of Congress” who has apologized for her past comments.
“It’s a political stunt,” Jean-Pierre. “Like House Republicans’ unfair removal of other leading Democrats from key committees in recent weeks. And that’s a disservice to the American people.”
What has Omar said about Israel?
Omar met criticism from both sides of the aisle in 2019 for comments she made during a town hall and for controversial Twitter responses.
During the town hall event, Omar suggested that Israel demands “allegiance” from US lawmakers, adding that “many of our Jewish colleagues, many of our constituents, many of our allies, (believe) that everything we say about Israel (is ) anti-Semitic because we are Muslims.”
Critics condemned Omar’s comments. That The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in a statement that “the charge of dual loyalty not only raises the ominous specter of classic anti-Semitism, but is deeply insulting to the millions upon millions of patriotic Americans, Jews and non-Jews, who stand by our democratic ally, Israel.”
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Omar also faced backlash when she responded to a tweet from journalist Glenn Greenwald, who shared an article about then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy considering “action” against Omar Tlaib for their criticism of Israel.
“It’s amazing how much time American political leaders spend defending a foreign nation, even if it means attacking Americans’ freedom of speech,” Greenwald tweeted.
“It’s all about Benjamin’s baby,” Omar responded on Twitter, referring to $100 bills.
Then one columnist responded that she “would love to know who @IlhanMN thinks pays US politicians to be pro-Israel, although I think I can guess.”
“AIPAC!” Omar tweeted in response, citing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Omar apologized for the posts the next day and deleted the tweets, but the Twitter response sparked outrage even among Democratic leadership.
The congresswoman was also admonished in 2021 for a tweet in which she demanded accountability and justice for “unimaginable atrocities committed by the United States, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban.”
“Equating the US and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided,” Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider and 11 other Democrats wrote in a joint statement in response to her tweet.
Her 2019 comment that “some people did something” in describing the 9/11 attacks drew sharp rebuke from Republicans as well as family members of those killed in the terrorist attack. She said her comments were taken out of context and noted that Muslims across the country became immediate targets.
“What I spoke to was the fact that as a Muslim I not only suffered as an American under attack that day, but the next day I woke up to my fellow Americans now treating me as a suspect,” she shared. Face the Nation later that year. “For some people, it’s easy for them not to think of me as an American, as someone who wouldn’t have the same feelings they had when we were attacked on American soil.”
The move to impeach Omar follows McCarthy’s decision to block Democrats Swalwell, Schiff from the intelligence panel
Last month, McCarthy decided to block California Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff from continuing to serve on the House Intelligence Committee as political payback for Democrats removing Greene and Gosar’s committee seats.
McCarthy accused Schiff of lying to the public during January 6 hearings to investigate the attack at the Capitol, saying Swalwell would not be able to obtain a security clearance in the private sector.
Campaigning to help Republicans take back the House last year, McCarthy promised to strip Omar of her foreign policy seat if elected speaker. In an interview last year with the conservative media site Breitbart, McCarthy said the removal of Omar was partly due to Democrats using a “new standard” to remove Greene and Gosar.
“I just think you’re on foreign affairs, the rest of the world is looking at it,” McCarthy told POLITICO. “It’s not an if, it’s going to be when she makes another statement like that.”
The vote to remove Omar from Foreign Relations, a committee she has served on since 2019, follows Democrats renominating her as sit on the committee last week. The resolution to oust her requires only a simple majority to pass, but no Democrat is expected to support it, and it’s not clear McCarthy has all the Republican votes he needs.
“McCarthy’s efforts to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred — including threats to remove me from my committee — do nothing to address the issues our constituents are dealing with,” Omar said in a statement.
J Street, a left-of-center Jewish lobby focusing on US-Israel relations, urged McCarthy not to proceed with Omar’s eviction.
“We may not agree with some of Congressman Omar’s opinions, but we categorically reject the suggestion that any of her policy positions or statements merit disqualification from her role on the committee,” the group said in a December statement.
‘Truppen’ and other broadsides reached out to Omar
Omar has also been on the receiving end of insults and slander.
Former President Donald Trump derisively referred to Omar, Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., as ‘The Squad’ at one point telling the women of color legislators to “go back” to other countries.
In November 2021, Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert made Islamophobic comments about Omar during a campaign event. The congresswoman called the Minnesota lawmaker “Jihad squad” and insinuated she was a terrorist in a video posted on Twitter by extremist watchdog PatriotTakes.
In the video, Boebert claimed a Capitol Police officer ran toward a closing elevator door with Boebert, an employee and Omar inside.
“I look to my left and there she is: Ilhan Omar. And I said ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine,'” Boebert said.
The congresswoman then reportedly turned to Omar and said, “The Jihad group decided to show up for work today.”
Omar claimed the incident never happened and never received an apology from Boebert.
More: ‘The Squad’: These are the four congresswomen Trump was told to ‘go back’ to other countries
Cast: Joseph Garrison
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Ilhan Omar rejected foreign relations in Parliament’s vote on Thursday
