Tuesday November 22, 2022
BY ZACH SCHONFELD
Photograph by Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) fired back at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after he vowed to remove Omar from her committee posts if elected Speaker.
“From the moment I was elected, the Republican Party has made it their mission to use fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism to target me on the House Floor and through millions of dollars of campaign ads,” Omar said in a statement.
“Whether it is Marjorie Taylor Greene holding a gun next to my head in campaign ads or Donald Trump threatening to ‘send me back’ to my country (despite the fact that I have been a proud citizen of the United States for more than 20 years), this constant stream of hate has led to hundreds of death threats and credible plots against me and my family,” she added.
McCarthy during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News reiterated his pledge to remove Omar, as well as Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), from their committees.
“Congresswoman Omar, her antisemitic comments that have gone forward, we’re not going to allow her to be on Foreign Affairs,” McCarthy told host Maria Bartiromo, referring to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Omar has long been critical of Israel and its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, at times drawing rebuke from other House Democrats.
Republicans are set to take control of the House in January and last week voted to nominate him as Speaker, although 31 Republicans voted against him. In January, McCarthy will need 218 votes to ascend to the role, assuming every House seat has a sworn-in member who votes, meaning he can only afford to lose a few GOP votes.
“McCarthy’s effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred — including threatening to strip me from my committee — does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with,” Omar said. “It does nothing to address inflation, health care or solve the climate crisis.”
“What it does is gin up fear and hate against Somali Americans and anyone who shares my identity, and further divide us along racial and ethnic lines,” she added. “It is a continuation of a sustained campaign against Muslim and African voices, people his party have been trying to ban since Donald Trump first ran for office.”