Republicans to Pelosi: Remove Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Eight members signed this letter to her: Carlos Gimenez, Adam Kinzinger, Chris Jacobs, Young Kim, Mario Diaz-Balart, Fred Upton, Maria Elvira Salazar, and Nicole Malliotakis.

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Pop quiz. What do those eight have in common?

The answer is that all of them crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats in February to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for various nutty statements made before she was elected to Congress.

Now they want a little reciprocity. We were willing to be bipartisan in punishing a toxic colleague, they’re reminding Pelosi. Are you?

That part at the end about Pelosi’s and Omar’s M.O. in cleaning up her occasional messes is spot on. But needless to say, no, the Speaker won’t be showing any bipartisan reciprocity:

This is a rare case where Pelosi might not have total control of the House’s agenda. Kevin McCarthy could force a vote a la the one on Greene on whether to strip Omar of her assignments via a privileged resolution. Would a single Democrat vote with the GOP in that case? Some have talked a good game this week about holding Omar to account but a floor vote is where words become action.

How about New York Democrat Tom Suozzi?

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How about the dozen Democrats who joined that statement a few days ago condemning Omar? McCarthy would need only a handful of crossovers in order to form a majority and oust her from the Foreign Affairs Committee. But, knowing how difficult that would be with Pelosi whipping votes to avoid embarrassment, I assume he’d settle for one just so that he could say the vote to remove Omar was bipartisan. Is Suozzi the one?

If the GOP can’t knock her off her committees, they’re at least going to knock her around rhetorically. Malliotakis came after her especially hard in an interview today:

“When I went to Israel in 2019, I spoke to citizens … They for the first time saw the United States was wavering in its support for Israel because of members like Ilhan Omar and [New York Rep.] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is a liability to the committee and she’s a liability to the United States of America.”…

“Having her in Congress, I think, is detrimental for our nation and it’s very unfortunate because she came to this country as a refugee, just like my mother did from Cuba. She should have a profound appreciation for the opportunity that this nation has given her — that she could rise to become a United States member of Congress,” Malliotakis said.

“But unfortunately, she repeatedly badmouths our nation and she does it publicly and it’s not somebody who should be on the foreign affairs committee representing our nation to other nations.”

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McCarthy’s gotten his licks in too:

The problem with Pelosi moving against Omar — not that she’d do it under any circumstances for fear of antagonizing the left — is that her majority is a narrow one. If she offended the Squad by punishing one of their members, they could cause her real trouble by holding out on legislation. Watch Rep. Lee Zeldin in his interview with Fox today, as that point comes up near the end. Sure sounds like McCarthy’s going to try to put Dems on the record about Omar with a floor vote.

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Jazz Shaw 10:30 AM | October 09, 2024
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