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Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign cash to consultants dropped by millions of dollars after she removed her husband’s firm from her payroll.
Federal filings showed that Omar previously paid millions of dollars from her campaign to the E Street Group, a political consulting firm co-owned by her husband, Tim Mynett, during the 2020 election cycle. But after blowback and criticism, Omar cut ties with her husband’s firm.
“But after facing increased scrutiny over the payments, Omar abruptly changed course from her once defiant state and cut off the cash flow to the E Street group shortly before the switch into the 2022 cycle. Now, her campaign pays far less for the same services to various other firms, calling into question the high nature of the E Street Group’s past charges,” Fox News reported.
“Following her husband’s firm’s removal, Omar’s expenses towards similar services fell by around $2 million, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. Omar’s committee previously paid the E Street Group nearly $3 million for its work, including advertisements across multiple platforms, direct mail, video production and editing, fundraising consulting, and research, among other services. But during the 2022 election cycle, Omar’s campaign only doled out around $1 million to a handful of Washington, D.C., Minnesota, and California-based firms for those same services, a search of her filings shows,” the outlet added.
Earlier this month, House Republicans voted to remove Omar from the powerful 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. “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
