On Thursday, the House voted to kick Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee due to her history of making antisemitic and anti-American remarks.

After a heated debate, the resolution to remove Omar from the committee was approved in a 218-211 vote.

Democrats fought back against the Republicans, accusing them of racism and hypocrisy. Omar claimed that the only reason she was being voted off the committee was because of the GOP’s “racist” agenda.

“I am Muslim, I am an immigrant, and interestingly, from Africa,” said Omar. “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. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fought back against the GOP’s claims that they were being “consistent” with their past practices.

“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,” said AOC during a dramatic monologue. “This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America.”

The Republicans denied the allegations of racism and highlighted the real reasons that Omar was deemed unfit to continue sitting on the committee.

New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R) said that she has witnessed Omar’s antisemitism and anti-American rhetoric.

“As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I’ve sat there and heard the representative actually spew anti-American rhetoric as well. I’ve been in the committee room where the representative equates Israel and the United States to Hamas and the Taliban. Absolutely unacceptable for a member of that committee,” Malliotakis said.

As part of their justification process, Republican lawmakers pointed out an antisemitic tweet that Omar posted in 2019, suggesting that Jewish people were buying political support in the U.S.

She wrote, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” angering many people from both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When asked if she regrets the tweet that upset Jewish Americans, and Jewish people around the world, she responded that “Regret is a strange word,” refusing to admit any wrongdoing or show any semblance of remorse.

In the past, Omar also accused Jewish Americans of having “allegiance to a foreign country,” which angered many people who argued that it was antisemitic to suggest that supporting Israel is the same as a foreign allegiance.

In 2019, Omar told a roomful of Muslims that CAIR (the radical group that’s been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates) was founded in response to 9/11. Referring to the 9/11 terror attack, Omar said that CAIR was founded “Because they recognized that some people did something.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy bashed Omar for her prior offensive remarks and stated that she clearly was unfit to be a member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs.

“I’m sorry. It’s not right. We were right in our action and she can serve on other committees. But it puts America in jeopardy and I’m not going to do that under my watch,” said McCarthy, defending the House’s decision to remove Omar from the committee.

 

The resolution passed by Congress declared that the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee should be held to an “equal standard of conduct due to the international sensitivities and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee.”

“Representative Omar, by her own words, has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security,” it concluded.

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