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The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution to remove Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The action comes after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy formally denied seats on the House Intelligence Committee to Democratic Reps. Eric Sowell and Adam Schiff, the panel’s former chairman — a decision condemned by Democrats.
McCarthy had vowed last year that he would remove Schiff, Swalewell and Omar from committee assignments if Republicans won a majority in the House, arguing that when the Democrats picked up Republican Reps. A “new standard” was created when Marjorie Taylor Green was removed from the majority. Paul Gosser of Arizona from Committees for Violent Rhetoric and Posts.
House Republicans, now in the majority, have given Green and Gosser committee assignments for the new Congress.
Congressional Democrats have reacted with outrage — arguing that Green and Gosser’s behavior warranted a larger reprimand and calling for moves to remove Schiff, Sowell and Omar from the committees. It appears to be an act of political revenge.
House Republicans have argued that Omar should not serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee in light of his past statements on Israel that have drawn controversy and, in some cases, criticism from members of both parties. It has been criticized as anti-Semitic.
In 2019, Omar issued a public apology after facing a backlash of condemnatory tweets from both sides of the aisle. The apology came as the Minnesota Democrat faced widespread criticism after suggesting Republican support for Israel would benefit from donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel group. Raised.
There have been other incidents: In 2021, a group of Jewish House Democrats accused Omar of equating the United States and Israel with the Taliban and Hamas, which the United States has designated as terrorist organizations. . In response, Omar said she was “in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries.”
Green and Gosser, who will now have committee responsibilities, have also faced criticism from both sides of the aisle. Last year, Republican leaders in Congress condemned both lawmakers for speaking at a white nationalist conference.
Green spoke at the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida – an event founded by far-right activist Nick Fuentes as an alternative to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. HuffPost reported that Gosser appeared at America’s First Political Action Conference via pre-recorded video. Gosar also participated in the same conference last year.
Green defended her appearance in a lengthy statement, dismissing the blowback as “fake divisions and trumped-up allegations” and declaring that she would not “cancel” other conservatives even if she Finds their statements “tasteless, misleading or even at times disgusting.”
A KFile review of Gosser’s events and social media posts over the years found the lawmaker’s long association with white nationalists, a pro-Nazi blogger and far-right athletes. A spokeswoman for Gosser declined to comment on specific questions about the congressman’s colleagues in response to the report.
In 2021, Green apologized for his “offensive” comments comparing the Holocaust to the Holocaust after visiting the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Omar, Schiff and Swalewell have backed down in response to McCarthy’s attempt to take away committee seats.
“Kevin McCarthy’s purely partisan move to remove us from his committee is not only a political stunt, but a threat to the integrity of our democratic institution and our national security,” Omar said at a recent press conference. and Swellville.
Democrats called the move hypocritical, pointing to the fact that GOP Rep. George Santos, who is facing mounting legal problems and has extensively lied about his resume and identity. facing growing calls to resign, was given seats on two committees.
In an abrupt change of course, however, Santos told a closed-door House GOP conference Tuesday that he wanted to leave two of his committees until his issues were resolved, three members said.
McCarthy has the power to unilaterally bar Schiff and Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee because it is a select committee. However, removing Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee would require a vote of the entire House of Representatives.
McCarthy said Tuesday evening that he had the votes to remove Omar. The claim came as House GOP leaders worked to lock down the vote after several members of their conference signaled resistance to the measure.
One of those Republicans, Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, announced Tuesday that she is now ready to support a resolution to overturn Omar, citing the addition of “compliance language.” Is.
“I appreciate Speaker McCarthy’s willingness to address legitimate concerns and include due process language in our resolution. Deliberation and debate are essential to our institution, not top-down.” The Congresswoman said in a statement.
Spartz had previously indicated that he opposed efforts to remove three Democratic lawmakers from the committees.
Last week, Spartz released a statement citing how Democrats had removed Green and Gosser from the committees. “Two wrongs don’t make a right. Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented steps in the last Congress to remove Representatives Green and Gosser from their committees without due process. Speaker McCarthy is taking extraordinary steps in this Congress to remove them from due process again.” without being able to deny some committee assignments to minorities,” the congresswoman said at the time.
The Democrat-led House voted to remove Green from committee assignments in 2021 following statements from his incendiary and violent past, including a KFile report that he had made before he was elected. In 2018 and 2019, he repeatedly indicated support for the execution of prominent democratic politicians. Congress. Eleven House Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure at the time.
The Democrat-led House also voted that year to approve a resolution censuring Gosser and removing him from the committee because he posted a photoshopped anime video posted on social media by the Arizona Republican. The posting appeared to kill Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And attacked President Joe Biden. Two House Republicans voted with Democrats at the time to pass the resolution.
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