Republican Ken Buck opposes kicking Ilhan Omar off Foreign Affairs committee

Rep Ken Buck (R-COLO) has put a dent in the GOP’s plan to remove Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MI) from the Foreign Affairs committee by saying he would oppose such a move.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has pledged to remove Omar from the panel citing past comments which he deems to be antisemitic. Such a move would need a full House vote.  

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) have also said they would oppose removing Omar from the committee.

This leaves McCarthy with no margin for error as cannot afford to lose more than 3 Republican votes for Omar to be removed from the panel.

“I think that we should not engage in this tit for tat. I am opposed to the selection — or the removal — of Congresswoman Omar from committees,” Buck said during an interview with Meet The Press.

Buck said he had “a little bit less certainty” in regard to McCarthy’s decision to bar California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee, which McCarthy has the authority to do as speaker.

“It’s a little bit different than a regular committee,” Buck said, “but I’m going to think through that and make a decision.”

Buck also offered his thoughts on the Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s re-election on Friday, stating that having some conflict on who the best person to lead the committee is “healthy.”

“I think there’s always going to be in the Republican Party conflict,” Buck said, “There’s always going to be people who are not satisfied without a 100% win and even if they get 100% win, they’re still not going to be satisfied so it doesn’t bother me. To me it’s a healthy political process to have a primary, a healthy political process to have opposition.”