House

Santos unsure on voting to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs panel

by Stephen Neukam - 01/25/23 7:34 PM ET

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) said he is undecided on whether he will vote to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to Insider, as Republican leadership attempts to toss Omar from the panel.

Santos told Insider on Wednesday that he still does not know how he will vote on the measure to boot Omar from the Foreign Affairs panel. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is set to hold a vote on the move in the coming weeks. Omar’s service on the committee has come under fire after past comments about Israel have drawn the ire of both Republicans and Democrats.

Santos’s indecision on the vote means Republican leadership may have a harder path to winning a resolution to get the Minnesota Democrat off the committee. With a slim majority, McCarthy can only afford to lose a few GOP votes. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) has said she will not support the move and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) also said she is undecided. A small group of Democrats have not announced how they plan to vote.

Santos has admitted to lying about his background, part of which was a claim that he was Jewish, which he later walked back as saying he was “Jew-ish.”

Omar is one of three Democratic lawmakers who have been pinpointed as candidates to be tossed from their committee assignments. McCarthy ejected Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee.

The White House came to the defense of Omar and her fellow Democrats who are in the sights of the new GOP House majority.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday said all three members “bring a lot to the table when it comes to foreign policy and national security.”

“We’ll say that when it comes to that committee, it should not be politicized,” Jean-Pierre added, speaking specifically about the Intelligence Committee. “It should be independent. And again, those congressional members bring a lot of expertise to that committee, and I’ll leave it there.”