Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: Who will be most impacted by Medicaid changes — and when

        Rebekah Barber · March 28
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Rep. Ilhan Omar looks on near an American flag during a news conference.
Rep. Ilhan Omar is seen during a news conference with Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell on being removed from committees assignments on Capitol Hill, on January 25, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images)

Politics

Rep. Ilhan Omar ties GOP vote on her committee post to her identity as a Muslim woman of color

Omar – one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress – says her expulsion is part of “continued targeting of women of color” by Republicans.

Grace Panetta

Political reporter

Published

2023-02-02 11:41
11:41
February 2, 2023
am

Updated

2023-02-02 13:41:12.000000
America/New_York

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

We’re answering the “how” and “why” of politics news. Subscribe to our daily newsletter.

House Republicans voted Thursday to expel Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from her post on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a move Omar said was a “continued targeting” of her as a woman of color. 

The House voted 218-211 to oust Omar from the committee, with all Democrats voting against it.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

The resolution removing her from the Foreign Affairs panel cites previous remarks and tweets from Omar criticizing Israel and the influence of pro-Israel interests in U.S. politics. Some of the statements invoked anti-Semitic tropes, and members of both parties condemned them as anti-Semitic. Omar said her intention “is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole” and “unequivocally” apologized for those comments in 2019. 

But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said before taking the speakership that he would seek to remove Omar and other members of her party from their committees after Democrats led the charge to remove two Republicans from their committee assignments in the last Congress.

Omar, standing next to a picture of herself as a child, said on the House floor that the debate over whether to remove her from the panel centered on “who gets to be an American” and argued that her lived experience as a Muslim and a refugee bolsters, not undermines, her role in shaping U.S. foreign policy.

  • More politics coverage
    . Nancy Mace speaks to reporters following a closed-door GOP caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol.
  • Rep. Nancy Mace warns her party to adopt a more ‘centrist’ abortion agenda or lose women voters
  • How Dobbs made the Wisconsin Supreme Court race one of the biggest elections of 2023
  • Two years in, Biden has prioritized nominating women of color as judges

“Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted?,” she said. “Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy, or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced? Frankly, it is expected because when you push power, power pushes back.” 

Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, was one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, in 2018. Omar moved to America as a child as a refugee from Somalia and has been a critical voice challenging and criticizing the United States’ imperialism, investment in the U.S. military and role on the world stage in her role on the Foreign Affairs panel. She also serves as vice chair of the panel’s subcommittee overseeing Africa.

House Democrats, joined by some Republicans, voted in 2021 to strip Republican Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia of their committee assignments for inflammatory social media posts that, among other things, threatened or depicted violence against other members of Congress. Both were reassigned to committees when Republicans took back the House majority.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a strong supporter of Israel, said Thursday morning that while Omar “certainly has made mistakes,” the vote to oust her from the Foreign Affairs panel was “political revenge,” Politico reported. 

Multiple Democrats who spoke up in support of Omar accused McCarthy and the GOP of hypocrisy on anti-Semitism in light of social media posts by Greene, as well as her appearance at a conference organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Former President Donald Trump also dined with Fuentes and Kanye West. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the removal of Omar from the committee continued the “disgusting” post-9/11 legacy of targeting Muslim Americans and women of color more broadly.

“There is nothing consistent with the Republican Party’s continued attack except for the racism and incitement of violence against women of color in this body,” she said.

“Do not insult our intelligence by suggesting this is about anti-Semitism,” said Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. “You want to introduce a resolution against someone guilty of anti-Semitism? Introduce a resolution against someone dining with anti-Semites, someone dining with white nationalists, members of your conference who are speaking at white nationalist rallies.”

Omar has argued that Republicans pushing to remove her from the committee only serves to fuel Islamaphobic and racist threats and harassment she’s faced since being elected. On Wednesday, Omar shared on Twitter a violent death threat targeting her that her office received via voicemail.

Omar wrote that “as horrific as this is to listen to, I share it because the Republican Party (and the public) need to know that there is a very real human cost to their continued targeting of women of color, not just to me but to those who share my identities.”

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

McCarthy also blocked Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats and White men who played key roles in the first impeachment of Trump, from retaking seats on the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff, who is running to represent California in the Senate, previously chaired the committee.

McCarthy is operating with a narrow majority in his efforts to boot Omar from the committee, with some Republican members criticizing the move as tit-for-tat for the removals of Gosar and Greene. But he locked down a key holdout, Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, by adding a provision allowing members to appeal their committee expulsions.

In preparation for the potential removal from the panel and her leadership role on the Africa subcommittee, Omar announced the formation of a U.S.-Africa Policy Working Group. On the House floor, Omar argued that efforts to remove her voice from the committee are rooted in the belief that immigrants and Muslims don’t have an equal right to critique U.S. foreign policy.

“So what is the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee? It is not to cosign the stated foreign policy of whatever administration is in power. It’s about oversight, it’s to critique and to advocate for a better path forward,” she said. “But most importantly, it is to make the myth that American foreign policy is intrinsically moral a reality. So I will continue to speak up, because representation matters.”

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

Jennifer Dorow speaks to the press.

Abortion

How Dobbs made the Wisconsin Supreme Court race one of the biggest elections of 2023

The state’s women-dominated Supreme Court will have the final say on abortion access in the state — and the race could come down to two women judges.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram