Original article on The Washington Post's site.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was kicked off the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a party-line vote that followed a contentious debate on the House floor Thursday morning that included yelling and Omar defending herself on the verge tears.
The resolution, once adopted, would explicitly condemn Omar for using an antisemitic trope to suggest Israel's allies in U.S. politics were motivated by money rather than principle when she in 2019 tweeted, "It's all about the Benjamins baby."
The resolution also disapproves of Omar's critiques of Israel and her comparison of actions by the United States to those of terrorist groups. She later clarified those comments, saying, "I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems."
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), while noting that Omar has made mistakes, forcefully defended her in a Thursday morning news conference, saying: "What's going to take place on the floor today is not a public policy debate. It's not about accountability. It's about political revenge."
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) also said Wednesday he would support the measure after McCarthy signaled a willingness to work on instituting a new rule that would make "it clearer and more difficult to remove people" from committees in the future. Other Republican aides familiar with internal whip counts said they have the votes to pass the measure Thursday.
...
In regard to the potential rules change, McCarthy previously said he would discuss with Jeffries how to ensure both parties prevent future majorities from removing members of the opposing party from committees.
Democrats have aggressively pushed back on Republicans trying to compare the rebuke of Omar to those of Greene and Gosar, saying that the violations are not the same.
"Congresswoman Omar never posted a video pretending to kill another member of Congress. She never advocated putting a bullet in the head of the speaker of the House of Representatives. …" Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said on the House floor Wednesday. "No, those are things Republicans have done and have said."
