Republican voters gave the GOP its current House majority hoping the party would turn the tables on Democrats. But it’s now becoming apparent that many Republican members of Congress lack the stomach for a fight.
A number of GOP representatives have stated they will not vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs committee, despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) promise to do just that.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said Friday that he opposes the plan to keep Omar off the committee.
“I think that we should not engage in this tit for tat,” he told NBC News. “I am opposed to … the removal of Congresswoman Omar from committees.”
Earlier last week, McCarthy made good on another aspect of his promise by blocking Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell — both Democrats from California — from the Intelligence Committee. But in Omar’s case, a full House vote is required to approve assignments, and McCarthy may lack the numbers to keep the “Squad” member off the panel.
For his part, Buck could not even say how he felt about Schiff and Swalwell being off of Intelligence.
“I have a little bit less certainty about Congressman Schiff and Swalwell on Intelligence, because it’s a little bit different than a regular committee, but I’m gonna think through that and make a decision,” he said.
Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana is another Republican who has made clear she won’t support McCarthy in his effort to block Omar from Foreign Affairs.
“Two wrongs do not make a right,” the congresswoman said in a statement to The Hill. “As I spoke against it on the House floor two years ago, I will not support this charade again.”
Meanwhile, Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina said that while she is undecided, she doesn’t like the idea. “I’m not going to be a hypocrite just because Republicans are in the majority now,” she said last week.
Two other Republicans, Rep. David Valadao (Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), have also signaled being undecided on the question of Ilhan Omar.
Given the GOP’s slim majority in the chamber, McCarthy could find it difficult to get his way with so many Republicans on Omar’s side.
However, he could potentially find a few votes across the aisle. A few Jewish Democrats — Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.Y.), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.) and Lois Frankel (Fla.), declined to tell Jewish Insider whether they had come to a decision on the matter.
Republicans like McCarthy who seek to keep Omar off of Foreign Affairs say she has disqualified herself due to past comments, including remarks that her detractors have labeled antisemitic.
But there is also an element of retribution in the effort. Democrats had stripped away committee assignments from Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) in 2021, and also blocked McCarthy’s Republican picks for the Jan. 6 investigative committee.
Notably, the Republican National Committee rolled a condemnation of Omar into a resolution last week blasting several public figures for making allegedly antisemitic remarks. The other individuals named were online streamer Nick Fuentes, rapper Kanye West, and former Breitbart personality Milo Yiannopoulos, who appears to have been hired as an intern for Rep. Greene back in June.
If Republicans fail to keep Omar off of the Foreign Affairs committee, it won’t be the only disappointment to the base since taking back the House.
The GOP narrowly won the chamber back in the recent midterm elections, in part by riding a public wave of exasperation with Democrats’ incessant wokeism. But now that they have power, Republicans are subtly moving to keep that wokeism alive.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a close MccCarthy ally who is serving as the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, recently put out a press release announcing his committee’s six subcommittees.
Contrary to what Americans might expect from the ostensibly conservative and constitutionalist party, McHenry’s announcement made clear that every single one of those six subcommittees will make it a top priority to advance “diversity and inclusion.”
For example, Rep. Bill Huizenga’s (R-Mich.) subcommittee on oversight and investigations is tasked with “overseeing all agencies, departments, programs and matters within the Financial Services Committee’s jurisdiction, including agency and programmatic commitment to diversity and inclusion policies and best practices.”
Additionally, GOP House leadership has already signaled it won’t cooperate with another major item on the base’s wish list: abolishing the IRS.
Although McCarthy, in his bid for the speakership, gave the conservative wing of his caucus the assurance that he would allow a bill to abolish the IRS to come to the floor for a vote, he is not backing the effort.
As Yahoo Finance reported:
Several Republican leaders have come out against the bill. McCarthy said earlier this week that he opposes it, while allowing that it could come up for consideration if it makes it through the committee process. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has also said he does not support the bill, preferring instead to make the tax cuts included in the 2017 tax law permanent.
Rep. Don Bacon, a relatively moderate Republican from Nebraska, told The Hill he is opposed to the bill. “I don’t think it’s a wise thing,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think “it’s smart politics or policy.”
Republicans never seem to learn. Once safely in office, they waste no time in breaking the promises they made to hopeful voters — and then they wonder why there’s a lack of voter enthusiasm among the base in the next election.
