Kevin McCarthy Says He Will Remove Ilhan Omar from Committee Assignment over 'Anti-Semitic' Comments

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Saturday, November 19, that when he is speaker of the House next year, he plans to remove Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her "anti-Semitic" comments.

"We watch anti-Semitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow in the halls of Congress," he said at 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 to cheers from the audience.

McCarthy is the likely next speaker once Republicans take the majority in January, pending a vote for the position on January 3. Republicans will have a slim majority, so he can only afford to lose a handful of votes.

Since being elected to Congress in 2018, Omar has made several controversial comments widely deemed to perpetuate anti-Semitic tropes, including saying it was "all about the Benjamins" for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and tweeting, "We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban," which was seen as equating Israel and the U.S. to the Taliban.

In a tweet before joining Congress, the Democrat claimed Israel had "hypnotized the world" and after being elected, she submitted a resolution to the House comparing boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazis. (FN /VFI News)

“God, we thank You for blessing us with allies that are willing to protect us and our reputation, and condemn hate speech against us whenever they encounter it.”