House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed to boot Rep. Ilhan Omar (R-MN) off the House Foreign Relations Committee but his effort appears to be on the edge of failure.
Politico's Playbook reports that McCarthy at the moment may lack the votes to remove Omar, as at least three Republicans have said they will oppose the move, including Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Even more troubling for McCarthy, the ever-rebellious Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has expressed reluctance to pull the trigger on removing Omar, even as he said he was supportive of McCarthy's bid to kick Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off the House Intelligence Committee.
“It’s one thing to do dangerous things to the country with intelligence, it’s quite another to say, ‘I don’t like your viewpoint and thus I want to remove you,’” Gaetz said in a recent interview with Newsmax. “I don’t support that.”
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Add in Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), who has said Omar deserves a chance to defend herself before being removed, and McCarthy would lack the votes needed to remove Omar.
McCarthy has so far struggled to manage his slim majority in the House of Representatives, as evidenced by the fact that it took him 15 separate votes to finally be elected as House Speaker earlier this month.
