Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) while acknowledging her past antisemitic "mistakes" as the House prepared to vote on removing her from the Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Jeffries said the House Democratic conference dealt with Omar's past antisemitic statements while calling out inflammatory tweets from Republicans at a press conference Thursday morning.
Omar was removed from the panel in a party-line vote hours later, with all Democrats opposed and only one Republican — Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), a member of the Ethics Committee — voting "present."
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"Rep. Omar certainly has made mistakes. She has used antisemitic tropes that were clearly and unequivocally condemned by House Democrats when it took place four years ago," Jeffries said.
While stressing that it is his "heartfelt belief that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state," Jeffries continued that "what's going to take place on the floor today is not a public policy debate. It's not about accountability. It's about political revenge."
"She has indicated that she will learn from her mistakes and is working to build bridges. We believe in building bridges with a diverse community, including leaders right here in the United States Congress. Is Ilhan Omar perfect? No, none of us are," he added.
During the press conference, he presented posters of inflammatory tweets from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) comparing President Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of meddling in U.S. elections.
Omar is under fire for a tweet she posted in 2012 saying, “Israel has hypnotized the world” while committing “evil doings.” She again came under scrutiny in February 2019 when she suggested that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.”
In a recent interview, Omar said she didn't know there were "tropes about Jews and money."
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“When that was brought to my attention, I apologized. I owned up to it,” Omar told CNN on Sunday. “That’s the kind of person that I am, and I continue to work with my colleagues and my community to fight against antisemitism.”
McCarthy unilaterally kept Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off the Intelligence Committee but needed a vote of the full House to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs since it's a standing rather than a select committee.