Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said she would vote to boot Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) off the Foreign Affairs Committee after initially saying she would side with Democrats to keep her on.
Mace said shortly before the vote that her discussions with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) convinced her to vote Omar off the panel over past antisemitic statements. McCarthy can only afford to lose a handful of votes on any measure due to the GOP’s slim House majority and a member out with injuries.
EVICTION NOTICE: WHY TRIO OF CONTROVERSIAL DEMOCRATS IS BEING BOOTED FROM POWERFUL COMMITTEES
Mace said McCarthy agreed to fix the House rules so that members are referred to the Ethics Committee before being ousted from committees, which addressed her concerns about setting a bad precedent of circumventing due process. Several other Republican lawmakers who were on the fence about voting Omar off have also since come around.
I’m a yes. Just left @SpeakerMcCarthy’s office. We will lead bipartisan effort to ensure committee removal isn’t politicized by either side in the future. #IndependentVoice pic.twitter.com/yHwS7636cG
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) February 2, 2023
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) also said she would vote “yes” on removing Omar on Tuesday, after initially joining Mace. She said McCarthy had addressed her concerns about due process.
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Omar came under fire in 2019 for tweeting an antisemitic trope about Jews and money as well as for a 2012 tweet accusing Israel of “hypnotizing the world.” She had since apologized.
