House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has officially, and finally, delivered on his previous promises to get rid of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her sear on the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her extensive history of anti-Semitism.
Out of the 222 Republicans seated in the House, 218 rose up to vote in favor of removing Omar, while three chose not to vote while a single Republican, Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), chose to vote “present.”
Speaker McCarthy a number of highly inflammatory and extremely bigoted comments issued by Omar over the course of her career, including the use of highly anti-Semitic tropes, drawing comparisons between the U.S. Military to various Islamic terrorist organizations, detailing the event surrounding 9/11 as “some people did something,” all just a small selection of her statements. McCarthy also highlighted that Omar has “never apologized” for any of the comments she has issued.
“We’re not removing her from other committees,” he stated. “We just do not believe when it comes to foreign affairs, especially the responsibility of that position around the world with the comments that you make. She shouldn’t serve there.”
McCarthy quickly dismissed the various claims that Republicans were just playing a political game by going “tit for tat” due to Democrats previously kicking a number of REpublicans out of committee assignments.
“If it was tit for tat, we would have picked people, took them off all committees and said nothing about it,” expressed McCarthy.
Speaker McCarthy addresses the House vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, saying the move was not "tit for tat."
"We're not removing her from other committees. We just do not believe, when it comes to Foreign Affairs…She shouldn't serve there." pic.twitter.com/Hkm5Xa4kSY
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 2, 2023
“For years, Democratic leadership has failed to hold Rep. Ilhan Omar accountable for her vile, hateful, and dangerous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric,” explained members of the Republican Jewish Coalition in a recently released statement. “Today, Republicans, under Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership, kept their promise to remove Rep. Omar from the prestigious and crucially important House Foreign Affairs Committee.”
“RJC has long advocated for Rep. Omar’s removal from this critical committee,” the statement went on to explain. “We are gratified that Rep. Omar will no longer be in a privileged position to influence legislation regarding US policy toward Israel and the Middle East.”