House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Saturday that when he becomes the House speaker next year, he will remove Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of her “antisemitic” comments.
During the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 leadership meeting in Las Vegas, McCarthy noted that antisemitism continued to grow not only on university campuses but also within Congress. He added that last year he had promised that if he were to become Speaker Omar would no longer have her position on Foreign Affairs, and this is a promise that he is going to keep going forward. In response to this statement, the crowd cheered loudly.
McCarthy is the most likely speaker of the House now that the Republicans are going to be taking the House majority in early January. In order for this to be confirmed, McCarthy will need to be voted in his position on Jan. 3. Republicans will be taking over the house with a narrow majority, which means that McCarthy cannot afford to lose too many GOP votes.
Since her election to Congress in 2018, Omar has made many controversial statements, many of which play into the antisemitic commentary. This includes saying that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is “all about the Benjamins”. Another such comment includes saying that “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” This comment was widely seen as placing Israel and the U.S. in the same place as the Taliban.
