Ilhan Omar has recently issued a lengthy reply to Kevin McCarthy’s “threat.” McCarthy plans to remove Omar from the committees if he becomes Speaker of the House. Ilhan Omar is not the only Democratic Representative who might face removal. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell could face the same problem if Republicans take control of the House in January.
McCarthy stated that he doesn’t plan on breaking the promise given earlier this year – to remove California representatives Swalwell and Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee and Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in response to what he described Omar’s prior “antisemitic comments.”
Omar claimed in a message on Twitter that McCarthy’s initiatives offer no solution for the struggle with inflation, health care, or issues with the climate crisis, reported CBS News.
Omar explained that, instead of solving the hostile attitude towards religious minorities, McCarthy focused on lifting up Emmer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others. In Omar’s opinion, if Kevin wanted to address the hate, he would apologize and ensure that others in his party did as well.
Omar went on to note that McCarthy’s persistent attempts to remove her from the committee do no good to problems like inflation, climate crisis, and healthcare. Omar’s opinion is that McCarthy’s threats do nothing but encourage fear and hate toward Somali Americans, dividing the nation. Omar concluded by saying that she will not stop fighting for more human policies, human rights, and world peace. She believes in America that doesn’t hate people because of their religion or race.
McCarthy threatened to kick Schiff and Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee, but none of them have yet given a public response. Any of those members would need to be removed from their committees with a majority of the House voting in favor of doing so. McCarthy couldn’t act against a member of the opposition party on his own.
The California Republican, who would require 218 votes to become the new speaker, is far from guaranteed the position. Despite McCarthy receiving the GOP speaker nomination, a growing number of Republicans are threatening to ruin his chances.
McCarthy’s adversaries assert that a different candidate will emerge and that negotiations to hire a replacement have already started. According to GOP sources familiar with the conversations, some of Kevin McCarthy’s critics have questioned if Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, and Jim Jordan of Ohio would be willing to run for office. But it’s been made clear by all three of them that they support McCarthy for speaker and won’t run against him.
If McCarthy loses over four GOP votes, he will fall under the 218 votes mark and won’t become a speaker. McCarthy insists he won’t quit even if that happens. McCarthy added that he was prepared to participate in as many floor votes as necessary.