GOP Moves To Strip Ilhan Omar Of Committee Assignments

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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a frequent target of criticism from far-right agitators, is now facing an effort from a number of House Republicans who are hoping to get her removed from her committee assignments in Congress, although there’s zero indication that this effort will actually get anywhere thanks to the current Democratic majority in the House. Nevertheless, Reps. Brian Babin (R-Texas), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Jody Hice (R-Ga.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) have apparently prepared an amendment that “claims that Omar has made anti-Semitic comments that are grounds for dismissal,” as National Review summarizes.

Among other issues is a remark that Omar once made suggesting that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a right-wing group, was “paying politicians to take a positive stance on Israel,” as National Review explains. Omar apologized for remarks that she made that some took as playing into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews financially controlling political affairs, although she definitely did not, by all appearances, intend to apply any of her comments to Jews as a whole in the first place. To begin with, criticism of Israel does not equate with criticism of Jews.

The Republican Congresspeople clamoring against Omar prepared their measure calling for her removal from committees as an amendment to a measure that would remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from her committee assignments in Congress, but suggesting that anything Omar has said is in the same realm as Greene’s comments is utterly ridiculous. Greene repeatedly expressed apparent support for executing prominent Democrats like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Once, on camera, Greene insisted that Pelosi was guilty of a “crime punishable by death.” These comments are eons ahead of anything that Omar has said that has come under criticism from Republicans.

Omar has repeatedly faced overtly racist harassment from Republicans like ex-President Donald Trump himself. In perhaps one of the most infamous examples, Trump insisted that Omar and other progressive women of color in Congress should “go back” to where they came from. Greene herself has targeted Omar — in an image that she shared before her election to Congress, she held a gun alongside images of Reps. Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rashida Tlaib (R-Mich.). In a caption, Greene insisted that the country needs “strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart,” which sounds like incitement.