Republicans oust Rep. Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee
House Republicans on Thursday voted to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past antisemitic remarks.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted Thursday to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee — the latest skirmish in a long-running partisan battle over committee assignments.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had faced a handful of GOP defections, but by Thursday he and his team had whipped GOP members back in line, and 218 Republicans voted to back the resolution condemning Omar for past antisemitic comments and removing her from the committee.
One Republican, Dave Joyce of Ohio, a senior member of the Ethics Committee, voted present.
All 211 Democrats unified behind Omar, who gave an emotional and defiant floor speech before the vote that left many of her colleagues in tears.
"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. It is no accident that members of the Republican Party accused the first Black president, Barack Obama, of being a secret Muslim," said Omar, a Somali refugee who made history as one of the first two Muslim American women elected to Congress.
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