House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has vowed to make good on his promises of removing Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from her committee assignments if he becomes Speaker of the House.

The California representative has previously called for the congresswoman’s removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee due to her consistent antisemitism and intends on following through if he secures election to the Speakership in January.

McCarthy was speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Conference on Saturday when he reiterated his conviction. “We watch antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow In the halls of Congress,” McCarthy said. “I promised you last year that as speaker she will no longer be on Foreign Affairs, and I’m keeping that promise.”

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 (@GOPLeader) November 19, 2022

Unless the January 3rd vote goes horribly wrong for the current minority leader, McCarthy is set to be the next Speaker of the House. McCarthy overwhelmingly defeated Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., in a bid for party leadership inside the lower chamber of congress. The results should be able to corral the rest of the party in order to secure his nomination to the speakership.

Omar has repeatedly come under fire for her antisemitic comments. The Minnesota congresswoman has routinely engaged in antisemitism yet retains her position of prominence within the Democratic party, and won re-election to her congressional seat in a resounding victory.

Before being elected to office, Omar made the claim that “Israel has hypnotized the world; may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Omar has expressed her support for the BDS movement, and last year, compared the country of Israel to the terrorist organizations of Hamas and the Taliban. The congresswoman regularly employs motte and bailey tactics, offering an outlandish claim before retreating to a much less offensive one, that have seen Nancy Pelosi and fellow squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez come to her defense.

Legacy media has taken up the baton of reframing Omar’s previous comments as well. After Kanye West and former president Donald Trump both made headlines for their comments about Jews, MSNBC had Omar on the Mehdi Hassan Show to talk about the concerning trend of antisemitism in America.

This is comedy gold – you two condemning antisemitism!

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 17, 2022

The RJC’s National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and Executive Director Matt Brooks offered praise to the GOP after successfully taking control of the House of Representatives.

“The RJC is gratified to have played a significant role in this victory, executing decisive Jewish turnout efforts in key battleground districts in support of GOP candidates,” Brooks said.

“According to exit polling, the GOP received 33% of the national Jewish vote – a historic achievement that further builds upon our efforts to move Jewish voters to the Republican Party – and notably, the GOP received a record-setting 45% of the Jewish vote in Florida.”

Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States. FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that “antisemitism and violence that comes out of it is a persistent and present fact,” after a recent attempt to attack a New Jersey synagogue was thwarted.

Wray noted that 63% of religious-motivated hate crimes were against the Jewish people, “and that’s targeting a group that makes up about 2.4% of the American population,” Wray said. “It’s a community that deserves and desperately needs our support because it’s getting hit from all sides,” he added. Wray said that the FBI was attempting to address these concerns by elevating the threat of antisemitism to a “national priority”.

 

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