Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) defended the House voting to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a fiery but peaceful press conference on Thursday.
"Some Democrats are arguing that the difference between last Congress when they voted off those Republicans off committees and Omar and this vote is that there is a lack of accountability because they say that you have not specifically condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene or Paul Gosar. What is your reaction to that?" a reporter asked.
"They're totally wrong. I can't believe you asked that question. Think what you just asked what you said," McCarthy began. "Every single Democrat voted to remove Marjorie Greene on something she said before she ever came to Congress. So they wanted to override what the American people in her district decided. Then they remove Gosar from every single place."
"Now they get upset, they want to fight really hard to keep a member of their conference who had a relationship with a Chinese spy on the Intel Committee. I can't believe they would even defend that...Then they want to defend Omar. I'm not removing her from all committees, like they did. They cheered when they did that!" he continued.
McCarthy went as far as to say if former Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) were still in Congress, he would have voted with Republicans to remove Omar from his committee for her repeated anti-Semitic remarks.
"She said the American military is equal to Hamas and the Taliban, from a member of Foreign Affairs," he explained.
.@SpeakerMcCarthy once again fired up about the double standards on display over removing Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee: pic.twitter.com/3E1Rnq6W8u
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 2, 2023
The White House defended Omar during their press conference on Thursday.
"What we believe is Congresswoman Omar is highly respected member of Congress," says @PressSec after House Republicans remove @IlhanMN from her post on Foreign Affairs over anti-semitic comments. Jean-Pierre adds that Omar "has apologized for her comments she made in the past."
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) February 2, 2023