The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on Thursday to boot Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The vote on the resolution to remove Omar from the panel was 218 to 211 and fell strictly along party lines. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) voted present.
The resolution lists a number of Omar’s past comments which Republicans say are antisemitic, including saying politicians who support Israel are “all about the Benjamins,” and compared the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban.
“Representative Omar, by her own words, has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security,” the resolution said.
Along with Omar, McCarthy also removed Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House intelligence committee.
Though he claims the move was not political, it is largely seen as retaliation for Democrats stripping GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar of their committee assignments in the last Congress for threatening violence against Democratic politicians.
Greene and Gosar were given back their committee assignments in the new GOP-led House.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) slammed McCarthy on Thursday, calling his move “political revenge.”
“There has been accountability; Ilhan Omar has apologized; she has indicated that she’ll learn from her mistakes. So this is not about accountability, it’s about political revenge,” Jeffries said.
“The line should be drawn when there are members of Congress who are actively threatening violence against colleagues,” Jeffries said, adding, “We take violent threats seriously because we’ve lived them.”
