The House rejected a move to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Wednesday over remarks related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
In a 214 to 213 vote, all Democrats and four Republicans voted to table the resolution from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is running for governor of South Carolina. The four GOP no’s were Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), Cory Mills (R-FL), and Tom McClintock (R-CA).
Omar thanked her colleagues for “having my back” and “not furthering lies on the House floor” in a post following the vote.
“Appreciate them safeguarding first amendment protections and the usage of the censure,” Omar said. “Finally some sanity in the House.”
This was the fifth attempt to censure Omar. Mace’s resolution condemned Omar’s reposting of several X posts, with the focus largely on one video of a man repairing a roof with a voiceover that called Kirk a “reprehensible human being” and condemned the “revisionist history about who Kirk was.”
But the resolution did not detail any remarks from Omar herself — a detail that her chief of staff sent in a message to other House chiefs on Wednesday.
“The entire thing is based on a video from someone else she reposted, and then a characterization of Omar’s interview with Mehdi Hasan, which contains zero quotes,” the chief wrote in an email obtained by Politico.
Omar’s interview last week with Hasan during a Zeteo town hall received backlash after she expressed condolences to Kirk’s family for his assassination, but also accused people of brushing Kirk’s previous controversial comments under the rug.
Mace accused Omar of “mock[ing] a political assassination and celebrat[ing] murder” as reasoning to strip her of her committee assignments.
“Ilhan Omar has shown us exactly who she is: someone who defends political violence and refuses to condemn the loss of innocent lives when it doesn’t suit her agenda, even the cold-blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk,” Mace said in a statement.
In a statement following the vote, Mace said the Democrats and four Republicans “sold out and chose to protect Ilhan Omar.”
“They didn’t stand with Charlie Kirk,” Mace said. “They didn’t stand with the millions of Americans mourning his death. They stood with the one who mocked his legacy. They showed us exactly who they are, and we won’t forget.”
The two congresswomen have exchanged numerous jabs in posts to X over the last few days, with Mace saying, “We would love to see you deported back to Somalia,” and Omar responding, “Would love to see you get the help you need next. You belong in rehab, not Congress.”
The resolution comes as leadership from both Republicans and Democrats has encouraged their caucuses to turn down the temperature on aggressive rhetoric and political violence.
Some members of the GOP conference have blamed Democrats and the media for the rise in political violence, while Democrats argue that extreme rhetoric is an issue for both sides, pointing to acts of violence against members and Democratic leaders as evidence.
The failure of the censure also comes as Republicans have expressed some heartburn over the flagrant use of censures. Once considered the harshest admonishment for members other than expulsion, intended for the most serious of issues, the use of censure has become more prevalent and weaponized as the parties have grown more polarized.
In response to the censure against Omar, Congressional Progressive Caucus chairman Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced a resolution to censure Mills, noting alleged incidents of domestic violence, stolen valor, and campaign finance violations.
A spokesperson for Mills declined to provide a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Casar later told Axios that he would be pulling his Mills censure resolution after the Republican provided a decisive vote on Wednesday to help Omar. The Washington Examiner reached out to Casar for comment.
In a statement, McClintock said Omar’s comments on Kirk are “vile and contemptible.”
“But this disgusting and hateful speech is still speech and is protected by our First Amendment. Censure is formal punishment by the House and we have already gone too far down this road,” McClintock said.
“Omar’s comments were not made in the House and even if they were, they broke no House rules,” he added. “A free society depends on tolerating ALL speech — even hateful speech — confident that the best way to sort good from evil is to put the two side by side and trust the people to know the difference. Congress exists for this purpose. For this reason, I voted to table the censure resolution.”
Hurd said in a statement that he voted against the censure because it would strip Omar of her assignments on the House Budget and Education committees.
“The right response to reprehensible speech like this isn’t silencing: it’s more speech,” Hurd said. “That’s what Charlie Kirk believed and practiced, and I agree.”
Flood said in a statement that Omar’s “reprehensible” social media posts should be referred to the Ethics Committee.
“The appropriate time to consider a censure motion would be after ethics reviews her conduct,” he said.
CHARLIE KIRK’S MURDER COULD BE TURNING POINT, OR TIPPING POINT, IN POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND RHETORIC
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) is also seeking to file impeachment articles against FBI Director Kash Patel and Pam Bondi in retaliation for Mace’s censure effort.
“If [Mace] (soon to be a sucker and loser in her governors race) wants to strip [Omar] of her committees for words she never said, MANY people are saying we should impeach the incompetent Kash Patel and Pam Bondi for the lies they ACTUALLY TOLD!!” Veasey wrote in a post to X.
