Ilhan Omar ‘very confident’ Pelosi will hold vote next week to strip Boebert of committee assignments

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who was the subject of an Islamophobic story told by fellow House member Lauren Boebert (R-CO), said she is certain Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will remove Boebert from her committee assignments.

On Sunday, Omar spoke with CNN anchor Jake Tapper during “State of the Union”, where she spoke about the situation. Omar said she had spoken with Pelosi, who said she would take care of the situation. She said she was “very confident” that the Speaker would hold a vote in the upcoming week over whether Boebert should be removed from her committee assignments.

She explained her stance on the issue, explaining why the action should be taken. “We should punish and sanction Boebert by stripping her of her committees, by rebuking her language,” Omar said. “By doing everything that we can to send a clear and decisive message to the American public that if the Republicans are not going to be adults and condemn this, that we are going to do that.” 

In addition, she explained her anger towards Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who defended Boebert, calling him a “liar and a coward”. “Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments,” Omar said. “She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call.”

Omar said she has reason to believe Pelosi will take care of the situation based on Pelosie’s support of her in the past. “I’ve had a conversation with the Speaker and I’m very confident that she will take decisive action next week,” Omar said.

She continued, “As you know, when I first got to Congress, I was worried that I wasn’t going to be allowed to be sworn in because there was a ban on the hijab. She promised me that she would take care of it. She fulfilled that promise. She’s made another promise to me that she will take care of this, and I believe her.”