Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) named Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday, despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) vow to block her from sitting on the panel over past antisemitic comments.
The clash will trigger a floor vote in which McCarthy will need the support of the majority of the House to keep Omar off the committee. He unilaterally blocked two Democrats from sitting on the House Intelligence Committee since it’s a select panel and is populated at the speaker’s discretion.
SCHIFF, SWALWELL, AND OMAR SAY MCCARTHY WILL ‘REGRET’ BOOTING THEM FROM COMMITTEES
GOP leadership is expected to bring the vote up next week, though at least two Republicans are expected to vote “no.” Republicans can only afford to lose a few votes on any bill due to their slim majority that’s compounded by the absence of Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), who is out with an injury for the next several weeks.
Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) have said they won’t vote to keep Omar off the panel, and several other Republicans say they’re undecided on how they will vote. Spartz views McCarthy’s vow as retaliation for Democrats stripping Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) of their committee assignments in 2021.
At a press conference Wednesday with Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), whom McCarthy blocked from the Intelligence Committee, Omar said the move was “about revenge.”
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“I do believe that when and if this vote comes, it will be a moment of clarity, and I hope that many of these Rs will have a conscience and will not prove to their constituents and the American people just how much of partisan hacks they are and how much hypocrisy they have,” she said.
Jeffries named Swalwell to the Homeland Security Committee in the wake of being rejected from the Intelligence Committee. McCarthy has said he could sit on other panels but should not be allowed to view classified information due to his past relationship with an alleged Chinese spy. Schiff was blocked for pushing the narrative that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election while he was chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He recently launched a bid for California’s Senate seat that’s up for election in 2024.
