(PartiallyPolitics.com) Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) decision to step down from his committee assignments has led to another controversy as the House Republicans continue to try to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs panel.
Currently, there is no indication that Santos’ stepping down had anything to do with the GOP leadership trying to pave the way to have Omar blocked from sitting in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Santos has said that the decision was reached completely independently. Still, his decision has led to a connection between the two situations that were not present before.
In mid-January, Santos had been moved by the House GOP Steering Committee to the Small Business and Science, Space, and Technology committees. This was despite multiple calls from both sides for Santos to not be allowed to sit on a committee as information about his lies relating to his personal and professional background, as well as questions regarding his campaign finances came up.
As a result of Santos’ assignment, the Democrats blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for allowing Santos to have a seat while blocking Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.
More importantly, many House Republicans also opposed McCarthy’s push for Omar to be removed from the committee because of past comments that have been deemed antisemitic. Omar has apologized for those comments in the past. However, as the Republicans currently hold a very narrow majority in the GOP removing Omar is challenging if some members of the Republican conference do not agree to the removal.
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