(Bloomberg) – Democrat Ilhan Omar has said she’s confident she’ll keep her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, saying allegations she’s anti-Semitic are part of efforts by political enemies to smear her .
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“To insinuate that I knowingly said these things, when people read my comments to give the impression that I have something against Jewish communities, is so untrue,” Omar said Sunday on “The State of the Union” from CNN.
Democrats voted unanimously in a closed meeting last week to allow Omar to remain on the committee despite accusations that she used anti-Semitic tropes in past comments, for which she complained. is excused.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he would like to remove Omar, setting up a potential floor vote in the tightly divided chamber. Republican leaders could move the resolution to remove the Minnesota Democrat from the committee as early as Monday.
Omar said two Republicans have publicly said they won’t withdraw it, while others have done so privately. “To smear someone and their character, their love for their country and the work they have to do on a committee, is wrong,” she said.
“I wasn’t aware that there are tropes about Jews and money,” she said.
Read more: Ilhan Omar’s foreign affairs seat looms as potential ground fight
Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish California Democrat, backed Omar during a joint appearance on CNN, calling the argument that she’s anti-Semitic a “pretense” driven by McCarthy’s reliance on “extreme members of his caucus. He cited former President Donald Trump’s dinner with a white nationalist last year at his home in Florida.
McCarthy said last week he was blocking Schiff and another California Democrat, Eric Swalwell, from serving on the House Intelligence Committee, fulfilling a long-standing promise.
Read more: McCarthy blocks two Democrats from joining intelligence panel
Last week, Schiff called the decision “a small political reward” for investigating Trump. Schiff was the lead director of the former president’s first impeachment trial and McCarthy said Schiff lied when he was panel chairman, which Schiff denies.
Swalwell, also appearing on CNN on Sunday, said McCarthy “weaponizes his ability to commit this political abuse because he views me and Mr. Schiff and Ms. Omar as an effective political opponent.”
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