🇺🇸 Ilhan Out

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POLITICS

Ilhan Out

Last week, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to remove Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. The move has been attributed to comments Omar made concerning Israel, which some say were anti-Semitic. But alternatively, committee appointments like this routinely change when control of Congress shifts.

Reporting from the Left: House passes resolution to remove Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee (CNN)

Reporting from the Right: Ilhan Omar gets the boot: House votes her off Foreign Affairs Committee as Democrats cite 'racism' (Fox News)

From the Flag: Several prominent Democrats expressed their outrage from the floor on the day of the vote, while suggesting Republicans were being racist for taking such action against Omar, who is of African descent. Here’s more from both sides concerning the committee vote.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Turnabout Is Fair Play Politically, and Omar’s Bigotry Made Her a Target

• Rep. Omar claims she’s being targeted by racist Republicans, yet she almost lost her seat to a Jamaican man who wanted more cops.

• Republicans are right to retaliate against Democrats, who violated established norms during the most recent Congress.

• At a time when antisemitism is on the rise, Omar pretends she hasn’t made repeated statements vilifying Israel and the Jewish people.

“Republicans Do Ilhan Omar a Favor” Elliot Kaufman, Wall Street Journal Opinion: “Republicans aren’t Ilhan Omar’s real problem. They voted her off the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday, and that may even have been ‘political revenge,’ as Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, called it in her defense. But Rep. Omar’s Minneapolis district hasn’t sent a Republican to Congress since 1962 and went for President Biden by a margin of 63 points. She isn’t going anywhere until her fellow Democrats have had enough. … Though Ms. Omar deflects criticism from Republicans as racist—’I am an immigrant and, interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I am being targeted?’—the color of her skin wasn’t at issue in Minnesota. Don Samuels, her Democratic opponent, who won 48% of the vote, is a black immigrant from Jamaica. While Ms. Omar supported the move to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department after the murder of George Floyd, Mr. Samuels sued the city for not hiring enough police officers.”

“Republicans are right to retaliate” Dan McLaughlin, National Review: “This is political payback. Democrats broke with the traditional norms of the House when then-speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat Jim Jordan and Jim Banks on the January 6 committee… and when the Democrats voted on a party-line basis to deny committee assignments to Marjorie Taylor Greene. … It is cheap and easy to oppose ‘whataboutism’ and insist that Republicans should just always do the right thing no matter what Democrats do. It is not always that simple. To start with, a supposed norm is not a norm at all if it is frequently ignored. Moreover, some norms of behavior, and even some rules, outlive their usefulness; if they are breached by one side, they are better left for dead. … In this particular case, Republicans can best enforce the norm by demonstrating their willingness to retaliate proportionally. … That is how power politics is supposed to be played.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Decision to remove Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee was overdue Editorial Board, The Jerusalem Post

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Republicans Are Full of It: This Is Partisan Posturing at Its Worst

• Hypocritically, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been restored to committees despite making hateful comments.

• Antisemitism is not the reason Omar was tossed from the committee, but rather Speaker McCarthy – licking his own political wounds – saw her as an easy target.

• Republicans' “fake rage” concerning Omar’s supposed antisemitism is especially offensive given that Nazi imagery was displayed during the January 6 riot that Trump incited.

“The GOP Attack on Ilhan Omar Trivializes Antisemitism Elevating Marjorie Taylor Greene while punishing Omar exposes the hypocrisy.” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine: “​​One of the first things the Republican Party did upon gaining control of the House of Representatives was to restore committee privileges to Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose positions were stripped over a series of deranged and bigoted statements. … Omar is not completely blameless here. In 2019, she attacked support for Israel as being ‘all about the Benjamins’ and expressing ‘allegiance to a foreign country.’ … Notably, though, Omar apologized for both remarks. … Now consider Greene. Within the last few years, she has written social-media posts praising QAnon and insisting Muslims should not be able to serve in government, 9/11 was an inside job, various mass shootings were staged, ‘Zionist supremacists’ are secretly engineering Muslim immigration to Europe in order to dilute the white population…”

“Antisemitism is not the reason Ilhan Omar lost her committee seat” Abe Silberstein, Forward: “As Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) stated before the vote… 90% of Jewish members of the House were set to vote to keep Congresswoman Omar on the committee ‘because we believe in the human capacity to learn from mistakes’ … these Jewish members of Congress supported Rep. Omar… because they understood this old news was not being dredged up for the benefit of American Jews, but rather for a historically weak Speaker of the House who has chosen to humiliate an opponent loathed by the Republican base. That Congresswoman Omar is a member of a religious and ethnic minority demonized by white nationalists ascendant on the American right is also undoubtedly motivating this solidarity. … (this) was not a congressional majority standing up against antisemitism. Instead, a deadly serious issue was exploited for partisan purposes. The vast majority of American Jews did not call for this unnecessary and cynical spectacle.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: The vote against Ilhan Omar does a disservice to Jews – and the fight against antisemitism Anna Kaufman, USA Today Opinion

FLAG THIS

Over Half of Minnesotans Are Not Big Fans of Omar

Polling conducted in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home state of Minnesota indicates 57% of respondents view her unfavorably.

Overall, her approval rating is a net negative 30%, which is the highest gap observed in any Minnesota politician.

Notably, that’s a lower rating than what former President Trump received (-22%), despite the fact Minnesota hasn’t elected a Republican for president since 1972.

By comparison, President Biden checked in at -10% (MinnPost/Embold Research).

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