Ken Buck comes out against committee removal of far-left Rep. Omar

By 
 January 29, 2023

Axios reports that U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is the latest House Republican to announce his opposition to removing far-left U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Buck revealed his position on the matter during an appearance Friday on NBC's Meet the Press. 

"I think that we should not engage in this tit-for-tat," Buck said.

"I am opposed to the removal of congresswoman Omar from committees," he added.

What's going on?

Republicans, following success in the 2022 midterm election, are back in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. And, after granting many concessions to other members of his party, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the new House speaker, replacing U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

McCarthy, before becoming speaker, vowed that, as speaker, he would remove a number of controversial Democratic members of Congress from their committee assignments. McCarthy and other Republicans have argued that it was Pelosi who opened the door to this practice by removing several Republican House members from their committee assignments during the last congress.

McCarthy, in particular, has targeted three Democratic House members: U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Omar.

McCarthy justified the removal of Schiff and Swalwell from the House Intelligence committee on two different grounds. Regarding Schiff, McCarthy has said that the removal is in response to repeated "lies," including Schiff's pushing of the Russian Collusion Hoax. And, regarding Swalwell, McCarthy says the removal has to do with his well-known ties to a Chinese spy.

As for Omar, McCarthy has vowed to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee due to her frequent criticism of Israel.

Is it going to happen?

McCarthy, according to reports, is facing pushback from a number of Republicans with regard to removing Omar from her committee assignment.

Buck, according to the Washington Examineris one of several Republicans who has made it clear that he is a "no" vote on removing Omar from her committee.

Unlike the Intelligence Committee, McCarthy can't unilaterally remove members from the Foreign Affairs committee. Instead, a floor vote must be held to take such a step.

The Examiner reports that, thus far, three Republicans plan to vote "no" with regard to removing Omar from the Foreign Affairs committee. The Examiner, though, also reports that there could be a twist: some members of the Democratic Party might vote to remove Omar considering the claims of antisemitism that she has faced.

Omar, for her part, is trying to capitalize politically off of this. She recently accused McCarthy of being "racist" and "xenophobic" for trying to remove her from the committee.

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