OUTSPOKEN DETERMINATION: Ousted from committee in a vindictive GOP move, this Dem vows to go on
Republicans have booted Representative Ilhan Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee in the very vengeance move they’ve been promising.
Still, she’s not getting discouraged or backing down, and she’s very clear about what the real reasons are for targeting her, in a Thursday floor speech you can watch in full below.
House Majority Leader defended the vote to remove Omar, citing antisemitic comments, and statements regarding the direction and scope of the U.S. military.
Omar has apologized for the offensive statements and explained that she wasn’t aware at the time of the impact of those words but has since learned, and repents her errors.
Omar, and others on her behalf, made impassioned speeches on the House floor, calling out right-wing racism and religious bigotry in targeting her, as a women of color, a Muslim, and an immigrant.
Omar drew parallels between the attacks on her, and those on former President Barack Obama, about whose very American citizenship Republicans lied and spread rumors.
She addressed their accusations that Obama was secretly a Muslim, and secretly an immigrant from Africa, and how these allegations were intended to make him seem “less American,” and that she is targeted for the same things — actually being a Muslim woman and an immigrant from Africa.
However, she also assured the public that her work wont be diminished by a single term removed from her committee, and promised she’ll keep fighting.
“Continuing to expand our ideas of who is American and who can participate in the American experiment is a good thing…I will continue to speak up because representation matters.”
