AOC Defends Rep. Omar: ‘This Is About Targeting Women of Color’

New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had quite a meltdown on Thursday just before Republicans held a vote on removing Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar from the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee.

During a speech on the House floor, Ocasio-Cortez accused Republicans of “targeting women of color” with their decision to remove Omar from the committee.

“Now, as — also as a fellow New Yorker, I think one of the things that we should talk about here is, also one of the disgusting legacies after 9/11 has been the targeting and racism against Muslim-Americans throughout the United States of America. And this is an extension of that legacy. Consistency, 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. I had a member of the Republican caucus threatened my life, and you all — and the Republican caucus rewarded him with one of the most prestigious committee assignments in this Congress. Don’t tell me this is about consistency!” Ocasio-Cortez declared.

“Don’t tell me that this is about a condemnation of anti-Semitic remarks when you have a member of the Republican caucus who has talked about Jewish space lasers and an entire amount of tropes and also elevated her to some of the highest committee assignments in this body. This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America! Don’t tell me because I didn’t get a single apology when my life was threatened,” she concluded.

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Soon after Ocasio Cortez’s speech, the House passed a resolution to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Axios reported:

The vote marks the latest reprisal in an escalating partisan tit-for-tat over committee assignments that House members in both parties have called to end. The resolution passed 218-211, largely along party lines. It cites six comments Omar made about Israel, pro-Israel groups, and 9/11 between 2019 and 2021 that were slammed as anti-Semitic by lawmakers in both parties.

McCarthy secured the votes he needed by agreeing to spend the next 30 days working on creating a process that would require the Ethics Committee to sign off on efforts by one party to remove another party’s members from committees. That would require at least one Democrat on the evenly-divided panel to support removal, raising the bar for such resolutions to make it onto the House floor.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed late last year to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over several past “antisemitic” remarks.

“We watch antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow In the halls of Congress,” he told the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 leadership meeting in Las Vegas.

“I promised you last year that as Speaker, she will no longer be on Foreign Affairs, and I’m keeping that promise,” he said as the audience cheered.

A clip of McCarthy making his pledge was posted to Twitter. A user update accompanying the video clip noted: “The Speaker does not have the power to remove a member from a standing committee. Foreign Affairs is a standing committee. Each party has their own rules and procedures for assigning committee roles. Only a majority vote by the entire house could remove Rep. Omar.”

Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks.

I'm keeping that promise. pic.twitter.com/04blBx3neD

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) November 19, 2022

Before joining Congress, Omar claimed in a tweet that Israel had “hypnotized the world.” After she was elected, she submitted a resolution to the House that compared boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.

For his part, McCarthy also condemned Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) last year after she said, “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.” Her remarks, according to McCarthy were viewed as minimizing the Holocaust.

At the time, Democrats, who were in the majority, voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments. McCarthy said he would reinstate Greene to those assignments, and she has vowed to support him for Speaker.

In April, Omar was blasted for complaining about a group of Christians breaking into song on a commercial flight.

Some details about the flight remain unknown, such as whether it was a charter flight, when the flight actually occurred, and the travel itinerary. It was also unclear how old the video is.

“I think my family and I should have a prayer session next time I am on a plane,” Omar wrote in a Twitter post containing the video clip to her 3 million followers on the platform. “How do you think it will end?”

I think my family and I should have a prayer session next time I am on a plane. How do you think it will end? pic.twitter.com/5696Erwsl5

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 17, 2022