Tag: Hakeem Jeffries

Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

Omar Removed from House Foreign Affairs

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee along party lines, 218-211, Thursday afternoon for comments she made mostly on social media sites three years ago, Roll Call reports. As a freshman in 2019, Omar appeared in social media and in public repeating an antisemitic trope equating influence in U.S. politics with money from “wealthy Jewish Americans.”

Democrats, in control of the House moved on after Omar apologized, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in anticipation of becoming House speaker this year, promised in 2021 to remove her if his party reclaimed the majority this year, calling her past remarks “appalling, wrong and disqualifying.”

Before the vote, at his weekly press conference Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-CA) said the Democratic caucus condemned Omar’s comments three years ago and added that the vote would be about “political revenge.” 

That’s “revenge” for the House’s Democratic majority in the 117th Congress having removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments two years ago over apparent endorsement of violence against Democratic lawmakers. 

Prior to her removal, Omar said; “My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I’m not on this committee for one term. My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world as it has been.”

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Trump to Constitution: Drop Dead

By Todd Lassa

Donald J. Trump last weekend claimed the United States as his very own banana republic by calling for suspension of the Constitution so he could be reinstated as president, because, you know … the Big Lie. 

In case you missed it, this is what he said (via Politico) on his Truth Social site (as Elon Musk awaits his return to Twitter): “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Wonder whether it was one of Trump’s star attorneys who suggested it was within his right to call for ditching the Constitution? Or perhaps the advice came from antisemite Ye, white supremacist Nick Fuentes and/or far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopolis (who has just departed Ye’s 2024 presidential bid according to the Daily Beast – the campaign for which the artist formerly known as Kanye West wants Trump to be his running mate).

“Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness,” said incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY), “or continue to lean into the extremism, not just of Trump, but Trumpism.” (PBS News Hour.)

One might also wonder what constitutional originalists on the right think of Trump’s call for “termination” of rules, regulations and articles found in the Constitution. 

GOP lack of reaction to Trump’s latest comments so far rival the party leadership's lack of their reaction to his dinner with Ye, Fuentes and Yiannopolis. ABC News This Week host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday had to press Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) for his comments on the Truth Social post. 

Joyce, chairman of the Republican Governance Group said, “It’s early. I think there’s going to be a lot of people in the primary … I will support whoever the Republican nominee is.”

At first glance, the defeat of many Trump-backed candidates in the midterms, and then the notorious Mar-a-Lago dinner two weeks later have been hailed as a voter affirmation of American democracy. Even the New York Post was ready to write the obituary for Trump’s political career as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerged as the new darling of the hard-right wing. But the inability of such GOP leaders as Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, topped by Joyce’s comments on This Weekhave kept Trump’s future alive and well. According to Politico, latest polls show the ex-president remains the most likely 2024 GOP nominee.

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