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 appropriations.
Chairman Kevin McCarthy had initially faced a handful of Republican defections, but by Thursday he and his team had brought Republican members back in line, with 218 Republicans voting to support the resolution condemning Omar for comments. anti-Semites in the past and removed her from the committee. One Republican, Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, a senior member of the Ethics Committee, voted present.
All 211 Democrats rallied behind Omar, who delivered an emotional and defiant speech before the vote that left many of his colleagues in tears.
«There’s this idea that you’re a suspect if you’re an immigrant, or if you’re from certain parts of the world or a certain skin tone, or a Muslim. It’s no coincidence that members of the Republican Party accused the first black president, Barack Obama, of being a secret Muslim,» Omar said.
«Well, I’m a Muslim,» she added. «I’m an immigrant and, oddly enough, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I’m being attacked? Is anyone surprised that I’m somehow considered unworthy to speak out on American foreign policy? Or that I’m seen as a powerful voice What should be silenced?»
Last week, several Republicans voiced their opposition to the GOP taking action against Omar, threatening to derail the vote given his new slim majority.
But this week, those defectors began to line up. On Tuesday, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., shifted her vote to yes after meeting with McCarthy and securing language in Omar’s resolution that would give lawmakers a chance to appeal the removal of the committees.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was undecided, said he would back the resolution. On Wednesday, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Col., said he would change his vote to yes after speaking with McCarthy, saying the speaker seemed open to a proposed rule change that would make it harder to kick lawmakers out of committees.
Moments before the vote, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, the only holdout from the GOP, walked out of McCarthy’s office and announced that she, too, would vote in favor. Mace said she got a commitment from McCarthy to develop a better process for removing committee members.
«We have a process today for [censure]. Today we have a process to expel members of Congress,” Mace told reporters. «We don’t have a process for removing your committee members.»
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.