The US House of Representatives issued a resolution to remove Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, after a vote of 218-211, while Republican Representative David Joyce of Ohio voted “present”, which means that he is not with or against the decision.
House Republicans have argued that Ilhan Omar should not sit on the committee in light of past comments she made about Israel that members of both parties have repeatedly criticized as anti-Semitic.
Democrats criticized the push to remove Ilhan Omar from the committee, and saw that the matter amounted to political revenge, and that the Democratic representative from Minnesota was held accountable for her statements.
In 2019, Ilhan Omar made a public apology after facing an angry backlash over tweets deemed anti-Semitic by both parties.
The apology came after the Minnesota Democrat faced widespread criticism for her view that Republican support for Israel is fueled by donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel group.
White House Secretary Karen Jean-Pierre said Thursday that removing Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee is a “political stunt” and described the move as “not in the service of the American people.”
Jean-Pierre noted Thursday that the White House believes Omar is a “very respected member of Congress” and reiterated that the congresswoman has apologized for her comments in the past.
Jean-Pierre added that Omar “was outspoken” in condemning anti-Semitism as well as “affirming our strong alliance and partnership with Israel.”
The White House spokeswoman continued, saying: “We base our view that it is a political trick, which is what the Republicans in the House of Representatives did by unfairly removing prominent Democrats from the main committees in recent weeks, which is not in the interest of serving the American people.”
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution to remove Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee because of her previous statements about Israel.
