Democrat Ilhan Omar Ousted from High-Profile U.S. House Committee

U.S. House of Representatives Republicans ousted Democrat Ilhan Omar on Thursday from a high-profile committee over remarks widely condemned as antisemitic, two years after Democrats removed two Republicans from committee assignments, Reuters reported. 

The deeply divided House voted 218-211 along party lines to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee with Republicans citing the 2019 remarks for which she later apologized. One Republican voted "present."

Omar, who arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia, is the only African-born member of Congress and one of the only Muslim women in the House. She was in line to be the top Democrat on the foreign affairs panel's Africa subcommittee.

Shortly after the vote, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries made a countermove, announcing that he intends to appoint Omar to a seat on the Budget Committee "where she will defend Democratic values against right-wing extremism."

Republicans, who won a narrow House majority in November's election after years in the minority, said they wanted Omar, a third-term House member, off Foreign Affairs for statements that included a 2019 tweet which read, "It's all about the Benjamins baby," suggesting that Israel's supporters in U.S. politics were motivated by money rather than principle.