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House Republicans Could Strip Key Democrats Of Committee Assignments If They Win In 2022

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Republicans are starting to eye their revenge on the Democrats after dealing with House Speaker and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s authoritarian rule.

There are several House Democrats who are frequently the target of Republican scorn who are in danger of having their committee assignments stripped from them, The Hill reported.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has threatened to retaliate after Democrats stripped GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) of committee seats this Congress, warning that some liberal lawmakers “will need the approval of a majority to keep those positions in the future.”

None of the Democrats singled out by McCarthy as examples of who could be removed from House committees have embraced conspiracy theories or promoted violence against their political opponents the way Greene and Gosar have.

But that’s not stopping Republicans from warning of a scorched-earth environment if they win back the House, as many poll watchers expect.

McCarthy has also pledged to restore Gosar’s and Greene’s committee assignments.

Democrats contend that they have only taken action against Republicans because GOP leadership did not, and only in cases where they promoted violence.

“Let me be clear: If a Democrat did the same thing, I would introduce the same resolution,” Rep. Jackie Speier, who headed the resolution to censure Rep. Gosar said.

But if you look at the recent comments of Rep. Lauren Boebert against Democrat Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar it appears that Rep. Omar is positioning Democrats to take action again.

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At a campaign event on Thursday, she shared a story, likely a fictitious story as a quip, about an encounter with Omar.

“I have an Ilhan story for you,” the Republican congresswoman said to supporters. “The other night on the House floor was not my first Jihad Squad moment.”

“I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers, and, he and I, we’re leaving the Capitol. We’re going back to my office, and we get in the elevator, and I see a Capitol Police officer running hurriedly to the elevator,” she said. “I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching, and I’m like, the door is shutting, like, I can’t open it, like, what is happening?”

She said that after the doors to the elevator had shut she noticed that Omar was in the elevator with her.

“I look to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar,” the representative said. “I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.'”

“I looked over, and I said, ‘Oh, look, the Jihad Squad decided to show up for work today,’” she said.

A furious Omar has vehemently denied that the incident described by Rep. Boebert did not happen.

“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout. Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation,” she said.

“Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. @GOPLeader and @SpeakerPelosi need to take appropriate action, normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress,” she said.

And when Rep. Gosar was censured House Minority Leader and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy hinted that he would get revenge if Republicans take back the House.

“What they have started cannot easily be undone. Their actions today and the past have forever changed the way the House operates,” the House Minority Leader said.

“It means that the minority rights that have served this body as well are the things of the past. And furthermore, it means that under the Pelosi precedent, all of the members that I have mentioned earlier will need the approval of a majority to keep those positions in the future,” he said.

“The old definition of abuse of power- rules for thee but not for me. That’s exactly what’s happening here today,” he said.

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The Congress members he had mentioned before, but not by name, included Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff of California.

“What’s worse, we got to this point on the basis of a double-standard,” he said. “Democrats want to change the rules but refuse to apply them to their own caucus.”

He mentioned how a Congresswoman, presumably Waters, asked people to confront members of the Donald Trump administration when they see them.

“This side of the aisle didn’t ask that chairwoman to lose her committee, we simply asked for an apology,” he said.

And he talked about how Schiff promoted the debunked Steele Dossier and the Russian collusion narrative.

“Think about everything that dossier put this country through for two years based on fabricated evidence – the infringement of due process, the spying of the presidential campaign, and of course the $32 million spent by hardworking taxpayers for a Mueller investigation,’ he said.

“And yet, the Democratic chairman says “I don’t regret it.” Why? Rules for thee, but not for me,” he said.

“When a Democrat congresswoman said ‘Israel was hypnotizing the world,’ supporting Israel was ‘all about the Benjamins’ and that 9/11 was ‘some” people did something,’ Democrats actually defended her,” the GOP leader said, referring to Omar.