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.”
Omar, a refugee from Somalia, is one of the first Muslim women to serve in the House of Representatives and often faces death threats and other threats of violence. Her office told The Post that violent threats had increased considerably since she has been in the news again. On Wednesday, Omar tweeted an expletive-laden voice mail she received this week in which a man said, “I’ll put a bullet in your f—— head and get the f— out of my country.”
“These threats increase whenever Republicans put a target on my back,” she wrote. “They can continue to target me, but they will never stop me from fighting for a more just world.”
Omar spoke in her own defense Thursday, next to a picture of herself as a child, saying, “Who gets to be an American? What opinions do you have to have to be counted as American? That is what this debate is about. There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant. Or if you are from a certain part of the world, of a certain skin tone or a Muslim.”
Republicans had initially faced enough internal opposition to threaten the resolution’s passage. Some Republicans raised concerns that removing Omar from the committee was simply an act of retribution after Democrats stripped Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) of their assignments last term. To assuage those concerns, Republican leaders devoted time in their last two weekly conference meetings to reminding members of things Omar said over the years, a move some lawmakers considered as a threat to fall in line.
In a lengthy conversation with reporters late Wednesday, McCarthy said the presentation was just a standard heads up from leaders to the rank-and-file about upcoming votes and pushed back on the assertion that he had to work to earn the vote, stating, “I’ve always had the vote.”
Yet, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) only agreed to vote for the resolution Tuesday, after initially stating she was opposed, because a provision was added that Republicans argue provides due process to Omar. During a Rules Committee hearing Tuesday evening, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) admitted the resolution has a “vanishingly small amount” of due process, but that it “may have been enough to get somebody’s vote.”
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.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) confirmed shortly before the scheduled vote that she would support the resolution, saying McCarthy agreed to have a vote on a resolution that would amend House rules around removing a lawmaker from a committee assignment.
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.
“I think we should actually have a process that Republicans and Democrats alike that… if somebody had done something of that level, that they could take the action,” he said. “We’re not going to be doing this to people [because] someone comes in saying, ‘I just dislike them.’”
Jeffries said Thursday he was “certainly willing to have that conversation,” but cautioned that it hinges on how the vote on Omar played out.
Consideration of the resolution also stalled because Republicans and Democrats had not formally approved the list of lawmakers to sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee until this week. Democrats had not been inclined to offer the approval when Republicans moved quickly to tee up the vote against Omar upon finding enough support, but officially did so Wednesday evening.
McCarthy and Republicans have argued their decision to remove Omar is less aggressive than Democrats’ removal of Greene and Gosar, since they are only removing the Minnesota Democrat from one committee where she could receive classified information.
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.”
Camila DeChalus, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.
