(Fox News) The House voted Thursday to kick Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a decision that Republicans vowed to take because of Omar’s history of anti-Semitic and anti-American remarks.
The resolution was approved in a 218-211 vote after a heated debate in which Democrats accused Republicans of racism and hypocrisy and claimed that the GOP is only policing Democrats for questionable behavior. Omar and several other Democrats openly accused Republicans of racism.
“I am Muslim, I am an immigration, and interestingly, from Africa,” Omar said. “Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was voted off the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday because of her history of anti-Semitic comments. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., dismissed GOP claims that they were being “consistent” with past practices by seeking Omar’s dismissal.
“Consistency? There is nothing consistent with the Republican Party’s continued attack, except for the racism and incitement of violence against women of color in this body,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America.”
“Why is this member being targeted today?” asked Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. “Could it be the way that she looks? Could it be the way her religious practices? Because it’s clear if she were on the other side of the aisle, we would not be having this debate today.”
But Republicans said Omar’s past comments make her unsuitable to sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she has heard Omar’s anti-Semitic and anti-American comments in committee. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., who chairs the House Ethics Committee, said Republicans are only following the “roadmap previously approved” by the Democrat-controlled 117th Congress, which Democrats used to remove a Republican member from all House committees.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said she has seen Omar’s anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism firsthand.
“As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I’ve sat there and heard the representative actually spew anti-American rhetoric as well,” Malliotakis said of Omar. “I’ve been in that committee room where the representative equates Israel and the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. Absolutely unacceptable for a member of that committee.”
The Republican justification for removing Omar from the committee was spelled out in the four-page resolution. It states that in 2019, Omar suggested that Jewish people were buying U.S. political support when she said, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” which struck many – including many Democrats – as an anti-Semitic trope.
