House To Vote On Resolution To Remove Ilhan Omar From Foreign Affairs Committee

The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution to impeach Democratic Rep. removing Ilhan Omar from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

It came after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy formally disavowed Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who were condemned by Democrats.

Last year, McCarthy promised that if Republicans regained their majority in the House of Representatives, he would remove Schiff, Swalwell and Omar from the committee posts, arguing that Democrats had created a "new normal" when they had a majority through the to remove Republican representatives. Arizona's Paul Gosar of the Violence and Rhetoric Publications Committees.

House Republicans, now in the majority, gave instructions to the Green and Gosar committees for the new Congress.

Democrats in Congress reacted angrily, saying the behavior of Green and Gosar deserved serious reprimand and saying the decision to remove Schiff, Swalwell and Omar from the committees appeared to be an act of political revenge.

House Republicans have argued that Omar should not serve on the Foreign Relations Committee in light of past statements he has made about Israel that have been controversial and in some cases criticized as anti-Semitic by bipartisan critics.

In 2019, Omar issued a public apology after receiving backlash for condemning tweets from both sides of the aisle. The apology came after the Minnesota Democrat faced widespread criticism for suggesting that Republican support for Israel was fueled by donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel group.

There were other incidents: in 2021, a group of Jewish Democrats accused Omar of equating the United States and Israel with the Taliban and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group recognized as a US terrorist organization. equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries. »

Green and Gosar, who will now serve on the commissions, have also faced criticism from both sides. Last year, Republican congressional leaders condemned two lawmakers who spoke 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. According to HuffPost, Gosar appeared at America's first political action conference via pre-recorded video. Gosar also attended the same conference last year.

Green defended his speech in a lengthy statement, calling the backlash "false divisiveness and false accusations" and declaring that he "will not cancel other conservatives" even if he finds their comments "tough, wrong or even sometimes disgusting".

A CNN KFile review of Gosar's events and social media posts over the years found the lawmaker has long ties to white nationalists, a pro-Nazi blogger and far-right actors. A spokesman for Gosar declined to comment on specific questions about the congressman's associates in response to the reports.

In 2021, Greene apologized for "offensive" comments comparing mask rules on Capitol Hill to the Holocaust after visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Omar, Schiff and Swalwell withdrew in response to McCarthy's efforts to remove them from committee seats.

"Kevin McCarthy's purely partisan moves to remove us from our committee are not only a political stunt, but also a blow to the integrity of our democratic institution and a threat to our national security," Omar said during a said recent press conference in which he spoke. . . with him. with Shifi. and Walwell.

Democrats also said the move was disingenuous, pointing out that fighting Republican Rep. George Santos, who is facing increasing legal problems and increasing calls to resign due to numerous lies on his resume and personality, won seats in two commissions.

In a sharp reversal, however, Santos said Tuesday at a closed-door Republican conference that he wants to step down from both of his committees until their issues are resolved, three members told CNN.

McCarthy has the power to unilaterally bar Schiff and Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee because it is a select committee. However, Omar's removal from the House Foreign Relations Committee will require a vote of the entire House.

McCarthy told CNN Tuesday night that he has the votes to oust Omar. The announcement came after House Republican leaders tried to block the vote after some members of their conference voiced opposition to the measure.

One of those Republicans, Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz, announced Tuesday that she is now ready to support a resolution to impeach Omar, citing the addition of "due process language."

“I appreciate Speaker McCarthy's willingness to address legitimate concerns and add due process language to our resolution. Debate and debate are essential to our institution, not top-down approaches,” the MP said in a post.

Spartz has previously indicated that he opposes an effort to remove three Democratic lawmakers from the committees.

Spartz issued a statement last week about how the Democrats removed Green and Gosar from the committees. “Two wrongs do not make a right. Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action in the last Congress to impeach Reps. Green and Gosar without due process removed from their committees. without a proper legal process", the deputy said at the time.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted in 2021 to remove Green from committee nominations after he revealed earlier inflammatory and violent statements, including a CNN KFile report in which he repeatedly stated his support for the execution of prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before he was elected to Congress. . Eleven House Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure at the time.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives also voted that same year on a resolution censuring Gosar and removing him from his committee duties, reprimanding an Arizona Republican for posting a photoshopped animated video on social media showing him A Democratic member of the House of Representatives killed. part of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. and attack President Joe Biden. At the time, two House Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the resolution.

CNN's Christine Wilson, Morgan Rimmer, Melanie Zanona and Veronica Straqualursi contributed to this report.

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