House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Saturday he intends to make good on his promise to kick Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) off the House Foreign Affairs Committee when the GOP takes control of Congress next year.
McCarthy made the comments while speaking at the high-profile Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 leadership meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, an annual conference of prominent Jewish conservatives led by Dr. Miriam Adelson, widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The House GOP leader’s remarks come two days after his party reclaimed the lower chamber of Congress, placing McCarthy one step closer to clinching the speaker’s gavel.
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“We watched antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we’ve watched it grow in the halls of Congress,” McCarthy told the crowd before referencing Omar directly.
“You know I made another promise to you last time. There was this congresswoman, Ilhan Omar,” he said, prompting boos from the crowd. “I remember what she said about me. I remember what she said about Israel. I remember what she said about the [U.S.-Israel] relationship. I remembered it so much, I promised you last year she would no longer be on foreign affairs. I’m keeping that promise.”
The event, which also featured appearances by former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is considered the unofficial start of the GOP campaign to nominate a 2024 standard-bearer. It is also the first major gathering since Republicans underperformed expectations in the midterm elections, despite retaking the House by a small margin.
Omar, who was first elected in 2018, has ignited a series of controversies over her anti-Israel positions and remarks and has faced accusations of antisemitism over specific comments.
McCarthy vowed last summer, when Omar faced bipartisan backlash for appearing to equate Israel and the United States with the Taliban, that he would yank the lawmaker from the Foreign Affairs Committee if his party retook the House, calling her “anti-American” and “antisemitic.”
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“I think Nancy Pelosi should remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee,” McCarthy said, referencing the current Democratic House speaker. “This is an individual that has not once but on numerous occasions been antisemitic.”
“Her own entire Congress had to rebuke her in the last one. But she’s not just antisemitic, she’s anti-American now. She’s equating America to Taliban, to Hamas. She’s discrediting our greatest ally in the Middle East: Israel,” McCarthy told Fox News at the time. “I will promise you this. If we are fortunate enough to have the majority, Omar would not be serving on Foreign Affairs or anybody that has an antisemitic, anti-American view. That is not productive, and that is not right.”
