Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is working to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from her committee position, as he previously stated before the November midterms. Despite the case against Omar being less strong compared to the case against Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, McCarthy claims to have the required votes to remove her.
GOP leaders flip Victoria Spartz who will now back resolution to oust Ilhan Omar from House Foreign Affairs after they agree to include language allowing her to appeal to House Ethics. GOP leaders believe they will get the votes. pic.twitter.com/hStEvQ6mhe
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 31, 2023
The resolution to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee cites numerous instances of her making anti-Semitic statements and minimizing the threat of terrorism, causing condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats. To secure support for the removal, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy agreed to establish an appeals process for such removals, satisfying Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz who was previously undecided on the matter.
The resolution targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar accuses her of implying that Jews and AIPAC were purchasing political influence with the statement “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby”, and of downplaying the 9/11 attacks that resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people, referring to it as “some people did something”. It also accuses her of equating the actions of the US, Israel, Hamas, and the Taliban in the context of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity, stating “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban”.
McCarthy’s effort to remove Omar from her committee assignment is widely perceived as retaliation for Republicans who were previously ousted from their committees, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar. If Representative Spatz does not reverse her decision, McCarthy will be able to take his revenge by successfully removing Omar from the Committee.
The removal of Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee is now up to Speaker McCarthy and his ability to corral the GOP Caucus into voting near-unanimously. The resolution against Omar is based on her anti-Semitic remarks and downplaying of terrorism, which has led to condemnation from both parties. With McCarthy’s agreement to an appeals process for removals, he may have enough votes to give Omar the boot.
The preceding article is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Trending Politics