If there was ever a resolution that I thought would have sailed through the House, it was the latest effort to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The congresswoman made some rather disparaging comments in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and she reposted some disgusting social media posts on the subject.
Well, four Republicans joined Democrats in voting to block Omar's formal censure, in an absolutely stunning result.
Omar sat for an interview in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s death, and it was then that she stated, “Charlie was someone who once said, you know, guns save lives after a school shooting.”
Now, that was a massive twisting of what Kirk said, and his statement was clearly taken out of context, but Omar was not done just yet. She added, “You have people like Trump who have incited violence. These people are full of sh*t.”
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) was the first House member to go after the Minnesota leftist, stating, “Disparaging Charlie Kirk’s legacy, a God-fearing, honorable man, for boldly sharing his conservative beliefs is disgusting.”
He continued, “The radical left has normalized meeting free speech with violence, and it must stop. No one who justifies the assassination of someone with different political views than them deserves to sit on a committee.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was livid over some of the things that Omar reposted on her social media accounts, with Democrats having previously set the precedent that a repost is the same thing as saying something yourself.
When discussion her resolution, Mace stated, “We’re filing a resolution to strip [Ilhan Omar] of her committee assignments after her disgraceful remarks on Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”
She continued, “Ilhan Omar has shown us exactly who she is: she defends political violence and refuses to condemn the loss of innocent lives when it doesn’t suit her agenda, even the cold-blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk. It's dangerous, disgraceful, and beneath the United States Congress. She must be stripped of every committee assignment. No excuses.”
When the resolution was filed, as noted above, I thought it would have been guaranteed to pass, but that was not the case.
Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), and Cory Mills (R-FL) joined Democrats to block the resolution 214-213. McClintock explained his vote, stating, "Ilhan Omar’s comments regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk are vile and contemptible. They deserve the harshest criticism of every man and woman of good will. But this disgusting and hateful speech is still speech and is protected by our First Amendment.”
McClintock continued, "Censure is formal punishment by the House and we have already gone too far down this road. Omar’s comments were not made in the House and even if they were, they broke no House rules.”
He concluded, “A free society depends on tolerating ALL speech -- even hateful speech -- confident that the best way to sort good from evil is to put the two side by side and trust the people to know the difference."
The statements by the other three were very similar, and Democrats responded by dropping a censure motion against Mills after the Omar vote failed. This is a tough one for me, because I think Omar should have been removed from Congress a long time ago. But as I have stated before, we have to defend free speech in the strongest terms, even when something is said with which we completely disagree. I am surprised by this vote, but I won’t say anything negative about the four Republicans who helped block the censure, either.
