VP PENCE RENEWS CALL FOR REP. ILHAN OMAR'S REMOVAL FROM HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
BY DAVE BOHON
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
During a May 10 interview on Fox News, Vice President Mike Pence renewed his calls for the removal of Minnesota’s radical Muslim Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Speaking on Fox and Friends, Pence recalled that Omar “has made statements, anti-Semitic comments … against our most cherished ally Israel, that ought to be rejected by every American.”As reported by Lifezette.com, among those comments was Omar’s statement in late February, in which she “complained about why it wasn’t ‘OK’ for her to talk about the ‘political influence’ Jewish Americans have had in ‘influencing’ U.S. policies.”Said Omar in reference to the Jewish lobby in America: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it okay for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or Big Pharma — and not talk about a powerful lobbying movement that is influencing policy?”In March, members of Congress on both sides of the isle denounced Omar’s comments as “anti-Semitic,” and Republicans even fronted a resolution condemning Omar by name for accusing Israel of buying influence, recalling her Twitter comment that “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” — referring, apparently, to $100 bills.That resolution was in response to an earlier Democrat version which broadly condemned anti-Semitic comments, but which failed to cite Omar specifically. “Democratic leadership failed to primarily and directly address Representative Omar’s anti-Semitic remarks in a resolution that should have been specifically about anti-Semitism so as to address the rising threat thereof,” the GOP resolution read.One Democrat congressman who challenged Omar directly was Eliot Engel of New York, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on which Omar sits. “I welcome debate in Congress based on the merits of policy,” said Engel, who is Jewish, “but it’s unacceptable and deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their political views, including support for the U.S.-Israel relationship.” He added that “we all take the same oath. Worse, Representative Omar’s comments leveled that charge by invoking a vile anti-Semitic slur. Her comments were outrageous and deeply hurtful, and I ask that she retract them, apologize, and commit to making her case on policy issues without resorting to attacks that have no place in the Foreign Affairs Committee or the House of Representatives.”While Omar offered an apology of sorts, it did not address her bizarre reference to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks during a speech to the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group with ties to terrorist organizations. In that speech she referred to the deadly attacks that killed more than 3,000 people as a day when “some people did something.”During his May 10 Fox News remarks, Pence also noted that Omar had recently attempted “to blame the United States of America for the deprivation and the poverty brought on by the dictatorship in Venezuela.” Such comments, said the vice president, “just tell me that … the people of Minnesota will decide whether or not she remains in Congress. But Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has no place on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”Pence’s latest comments are a repeat of ones he made in March, demanding that Omar be removed from her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Anti-Semitism has no place in the Congress of the United States of America,” Pence said at the time. “Anyone who slanders this historic alliance between the United States and Israel should never have a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
