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House Republicans aim to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from committees instead of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Oma Seddiq,Jake Lahut   

House Republicans aim to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from committees instead of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
  • House Republicans came up with a tit-for-tat response to calls to reprimand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
  • Some in the GOP want Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to be punished instead of Greene.
  • Greene faces calls for her removal from committees over conspiratorial rhetoric involving violence.

While House Democrats prepared to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee roles, some GOP lawmakers suggested that Rep. Ilhan Omar be removed from her panels instead.

Democrats unveiled a measure this week to drop Greene from the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee over concerns that she had amplified conspiracy theories and endorsed political violence, detailed in recent news reports on her social-media activity.

Texas Rep. Brian Babin on Tuesday proposed an amendment to the resolution that would replace Greene's name with Omar's, Forbes reported.

"If the Democrat Majority wants to go down this road, they should start by dealing with their own members who have been at this before and AFTER their election to Congress," Babin tweeted on Tuesday.

A handful of Republicans have backed Babin's resolution, including fellow Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson and Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Jody Hice of Georgia, according to Forbes.

Babin's office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

On Wednesday, Biggs went on Fox News to elaborate. He equated Greene's comments with unspecified remarks by Omar and other Democrats that were "offensive or dangerous."

"On the other hand, you have comments from Ilhan Omar, Nancy Pelosi ... a whole plethora of folks who, while they're sitting here, have made offensive or dangerous statements as well," Biggs said, without elaborating.

"We're really trying to say, look, if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander, but maybe what should happen is we let Republicans take care of our own, and you Democrats take care of your own," he continued, "and when someone is elected - and by the way, most of these statements were known when [Greene] was running, and she won overwhelmingly."

Since Democrats have a majority in the House, Babin's proposal likely won't happen.

Omar, who represents Minnesota's 5th Congressional District and is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, faced criticism shortly after she took office in 2019 over her tweets about Israel. Omar had said Republicans' support of Israel was "all about the Benjamins," a reference to the financial influence of Jewish lobbying groups that played into anti-Semitic tropes.

Several Republicans and Democrats condemned her statements as anti-Semitic. Omar apologized and said that her intentions were "never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole." The House later passed a resolution to condemn all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Omar described congressional Republicans' calls for her to be sanctioned as "whataboutism."

"Stop whitewashing the actions of the bigoted conspiracy theorists, violent insurrectionists and fascist cult followers of Trump," Omar tweeted.

Greene, a freshman Republican from Georgia, has been at the center of backlash in recent weeks because of her past controversial comments. She has suggested on multiple occasions that mass shootings were orchestrated to promote gun control. She previously "liked" a Facebook post claiming that the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, which killed 17 people, was a "false flag" operation, the watchdog group Media Matters reported.

The lawmaker has also been linked to several other baseless theories, including QAnon and Pizzagate, and has falsely claimed that an airplane never hit the Pentagon on 9/11. Greene has a history of making racist and Islamophobic remarks, and CNN reported that she had previously endorsed calls to execute lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In light of the statements, Pelosi on Monday urged House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to take action against Greene and stop her from serving on her assigned committees. The top Democrat offered the Republican leader 72 hours to act or she would remove Greene from the panels.

As of Wednesday morning, McCarthy hadn't done so. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the resolution at 3 p.m.

Greene has received backlash from both sides of the aisle. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week called her "loony lies and conspiracy theories" a "cancer" to the GOP. Other Republicans, including Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Mitt Romney of Utah, echoed his remarks.

House leadership bristled at the comparison to Omar.

"There's absolutely no analogy to any member on our side of the aisle, period," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday, according to pool reports. "Any analogy that they try to make is a specious one."

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