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'an affront to this Committee'
Reap what you sow: Democrats now express regret for skirting norms to boot Republicans from committees
The chickens came home to roost.
Some Democratic lawmakers expressed regret that their party organized the forced removal of two Republican lawmakers from their committees two years ago. The spirit of contrition was voiced on Wednesday, one day before the House voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
What did the Democrats say?
At a House Ethics Committee hearing, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) admitted that Republicans were right when they warned two years ago that removing GOP lawmakers from committees would later come back to bite Democrats.
In February 2021, the House stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from her committees. Nine months later, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was stripped of his assignments and censured.
"I do concede that some of the warnings about the dangers," said Neguse of removing Greene and Gosar, "were prescient."
Moreover, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Susan Wild (D-Penn.), admitted that "I don't think that it was the correct process" to remove the Republican lawmakers without going through traditional Ethics Committee procedures, the Jewish Insider reported. She disclosed that she shared conversations with colleagues at the time worrying that removing Greene and Gosar would establish bad precedents.
Additionally, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted to the Jewish Insider that the way in which Democrats lorded over the removal of Greene and Gosar from their committees "was not consistent with the way the institution had been run in the past."
What happened in Omar?
The Minnesota Democrat was officially removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee after the House passed a resolution on her removal. Three Republicans abstained from voting, while one voted "present."
Democrats responded to the vote by accusing Republicans of exacting partisan revenge, alleging they targeted Omar because she is Muslim and African.
Before the vote, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Republicans who were opposed to removing Omar. Those meetings resulted in promises that, in the future, it will be more difficult to remove lawmakers from committees, especially without giving them due process.
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Republican lawmaker abruptly switches course before House votes to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from committee
One Republican lawmaker abruptly switched course late Tuesday, announcing that she will support the effort to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
What is the background?
Last week, after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced he was booting Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee and Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz (Ind.) spoke out against McCarthy.
She said:
Two wrongs do not make a right. Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process. Speaker McCarthy is taking unprecedented actions this Congress to deny some committee assignments to the Minority without proper due process again.
As I spoke against it on the House floor two years ago, I will not support this charade again. Speaker McCarthy needs to stop “bread and circuses” in Congress and start governing for a change.
What is she saying now?
After meeting with McCarthy, Spartz said she will support a resolution to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I appreciate Speaker McCarthy’s willingness to address legitimate concerns and add due process language to our resolution," she said in a statement. "Deliberation and debate are vital for our institution, not top-down approaches.
"The rule of law, freedom of speech, and due process are fundamental to our Constitutional Republic. Our founding fathers understood that pure democracy is dangerous and can lead to the tyranny of majority, mob rule and dictatorship," she said.
Spartz added that she supports "setting a precedent of allowing an appeal process," suggesting she believes removing Omar is not simply vindictive politics.
The development is significant because McCarthy cannot boot members from standing committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee. Thus, to remove Omar, a resolution on her removal must go before the House floor for a full vote.
The House is expected to take that vote on Wednesday.
With Spartz's support, the resolution will likely be approved. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) are the only other two Republicans who have said they oppose removing Omar. That means there is majority support for Omar's removal.
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Yet another Republican comes to defense of Ilhan Omar, vows to oppose her removal from important committee
A third Republican lawmaker has come to the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
On Friday, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) joined two other House Republicans in defending Omar after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy booted her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I think that we should not engage in this tit for tat," Buck said on NBC News. "I am opposed to the removal of Congresswoman Omar from committees."
Buck qualified his response by noting the role that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi played in booting lawmakers from committees.
"I think Nancy Pelosi ruined this institution. I think she ruined it in a lot of different ways and one of the ways was kicking members off of committees, which hadn't been done in the past," he explained, noting that committee expulsions traditionally had been managed internally within parties, citing former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) as an example.
GOP congressman is ‘opposed to the removal’ of Rep. Omar from House Foreign Affairs Committee www.youtube.com
Buck's position imperils McCarthy's campaign to remove Omar for her alleged history of anti-Semitism.
That is because, despite being House speaker, McCarthy cannot unilaterally remove members from standing committees, which include the Foreign Affairs Committee. Removing Omar from the committee requires majority approval — 218 votes — via a floor vote of the entire House.
But Republicans only have 222 seats. And because Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) have already announced their opposition to booting Omar from the committee, McCarthy has no margin for error.
Anything else?
Omar claimed on CNN's "State of the Union" over the weekend that other Republican lawmakers have told her behind closed doors that they will not support her removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
She did not, however, disclose which Republicans have purportedly vowed to support her.
Meanwhile, Omar reiterated her belief that McCarthy and other Republicans specifically oppose her holding a position on the important Foreign Affairs Committee because she is Muslim.
"It is politically motivated. And, in some cases, it's motivated by the fact that many of these members don't believe a Muslim, a refugee, an African should even be in Congress, let alone have the opportunity to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee," Omar claimed.
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