‘Look At Your Own Damn Mirror!’: Democrats Fight Back As Rep Omar Booted from Key Committee
However, minority leader immediately gives her another plum assignment
She and her fellow Democrats blasted House Republicans for voting to remove Rep Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy carried out the floor vote Thursday, which he had long-promised should Republicans retake a House majority.
However, that majority Republicans won in the November midterm elections was so tiny that it took weeks for McCarthy to secure the 218 votes required to pull the Minnesota Democrat from her seat on the foreign affairs panel.
New House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to Omar's ouster with a bold move of his own.
In the end, Omar was removed by the slimmest margin possible: 218-211, with one lawmaker voting “present.”
It was a strict, party-line vote; no Democrats joined the effort to remove Omar.
McCarthy and other Republicans tried to make a case that the sophomore lawmaker was removed due to previous comments she made which were perceived as antisemitic — and which she has apologized.
However, Democrats and others maintain that the move was nothing more than political revenge for Democrats removing Republican Reps Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, two years ago from their committee assignments for advocating violence against prominent Democrats.
McCarthy restored the Republican pair's respective committee assignments this year. He also used his unilateral power as speaker to have removed two well-known Democrats from their seats on the House Intelligence Committee.
In an emotional speech on the House floor Thursday, Omar said she is being targeted for her identity as a Muslim immigrant from Africa.
“There is this idea that you are a suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from certain parts of the world or a certain skin tone or a Muslim,” she said. “It is no accident that members of the Republican Party accuse the first black president, Barack Obama, of being a secret Muslim. It is no accident that former president Donald Trump led a birther movement that falsely claimed he was born in Kenya.
“Because to them, falsely labeling the first and only president of the United States of America, a Muslim, an African immigrant, somehow made him less American. Well, I am Muslim. I am an immigrant. And, interestingly, from Africa,” Omar added. “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? Frankly, it is expected.”
Her experience as an immigrant and refugee who survived a civil war give her a valuable and unique perspective on American foreign policy, she added.
Omar's Democratic colleagues also jumped to her defense.
That included Rep Eric Swalwell of California, one of the Democrats McCarthy previously pulled from the intelligence panel.
“Madam Speaker, when I heard that we’re going to remove a member of this House from their committee for antisemitism, I raced down here because I thought, ‘Finally —finally — in this chamber there’s going to be some accountability, some accountability from this conference that continues to allow its members to root for rioters, to show sympathy for the insurrection, a conference that harbors a wanted international criminal, and has members who choose violence over voting every single day. Finally,” Swalwell said.
“And so I thought, we’re going to hold someone accountable for antisemitism. Surely it’s the author of this tweet. ‘Kanye. Elon. Trump.’ October 6, written by Chairman Jim Jordan. October 8, what does Kanye say? ‘I’m gonna declare defcon 3 on the Jews.’ So, surely this tweet came down, right? Came down, was deleted? No. Two more months it was kept up. Two more months,” he added. “So don’t come here looking at us for antisemitism. Look in your own damn mirror before you ever come over here!”
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, angrily denounced Republicans, citing her experience from Gosar releasing imagery depicting her murder.
“Don’t tell me this is about consistency,” she said on the House floor. “Don’t tell me this is about a condemnation of antisemitic remarks when you have a member of the Republican caucus who has talked about Jewish space lasers and other tropes and also elevated her to some of the highest committee assignments in this body. This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America.”
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to Greene, who despite pushing antisemitic tropes — including the idea that a satellite funded by a Jewish family is responsible for the California wildfires — has been embraced by Republican leadership and given plum committee assignments. She also called out the GOP for elevating Gosar, for his video post depicting her murder.
Jeffries said Thursday the motion to remove Omar was not about accountability, but “political revenge.”
"Rep. Omar certainly has made mistakes,” Jeffries told reporters. “Ilhan Omar has apologized. She has indicated that she'll learn from her mistakes, is working to build bridges....with the Jewish community.”
But, more than that, Jefferies used his powers to turn the tables and still elevate Omar.
“WOW. Absolute power move by Hakeem Jeffries. After Republicans kicked Ilhan Omar off of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Jeffries immediately put her on the House Budget Committee. Republicans messed with the wrong party and person. Rep. Omar won’t be silenced,” Victor Shi, a Democratic activist and social media influencer, tweeted Thursday.
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