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The House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines on Wednesday to table a resolution to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., over comments about Charlie Kirk.
Four House Republicans voted with Democrats to table the legislation, effectively blocking it from receiving its own House-wide vote. A vote to table is a procedural mechanism allowing House members to vote against consideration of a bill without having to vote on the bill itself.
The measure was blocked in a narrow 214 to 213 vote. The four Republicans who voted to table the measure are Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., and Cory Mills, R-Fla.
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McClintock told Fox News Digital that while he condemned Omar’s response to Kirk’s death, he voted against moving forward with the censure based on First Amendment grounds.
“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,” he said.
“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. 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.”
Hurd responded similarly, “Ilhan Omar’s comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, as well as her comments about those who supported Charlie, are ghoulish and evil. I condemn them completely.”
“But I voted against today’s censure because it tried to strip another Member of Congress from committees and to silence her for exercising the First Amendment right to free speech. The right response to reprehensible speech like this isn’t silencing: it’s more speech. That’s what Charlie Kirk believed and practiced, and I agree,” he told Fox News Digital.
Mills had been facing his own retaliatory censure led by House progressives, but that effort was dropped when Omar’s censure failed.
He cited First Amendment grounds on X when explaining his vote as well, however. “The 7 Articles and 27 Amendments of our Constitution are not followed only when it serves your purpose…We may not like or agree with what someone says, but that does not mean we should deny their protected 1A Right,” Mills posted.
Flood told Fox News Digital that the proper recourse would be referring Omar to the House Ethics Committee before a censure.
“Ilhan Omar’s statements and social media posts are reprehensible and should be referred to the Ethics Committee. The appropriate time to consider a censure motion would be after ethics reviews her conduct,” Flood said.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., moved to force a vote on the resolution Tuesday by introducing it as “privileged,” a mechanism that requires House leaders to deal with a measure within two legislative days.
It’s part of the continued fallout from Omar’s remarks made days after Kirk’s assassination, which conservatives have accused of disparaging the conservative activist’s legacy.
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She specifically faced backlash over an interview with progressive news outlet Zeteo, where she criticized Kirk’s past commentary and Republicans’ reaction to the shooting. She later accused Republicans of taking her words out of context, and she called Kirk’s death “mortifying.”
She previously told Zeteo days after Kirk’s assassination that he had “downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.”
“There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,” the “Squad” member said. “There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.”
She later posted on X amid the backlash, “While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion. Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis.”
Kirk was shot and killed during a college campus speaking event in Utah.
Mace introduced her resolution on the House floor Tuesday by reading it on the House floor.
“Charlie Kirk was a lifelong advocate for freedom of speech, civil political discourse and the political engagement of youth,” Mace read aloud. “One day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Representative Ilhan Omar gave an interview on Zeteo’s town hall with Mehdi Hassan, in which she smeared Charlie Kirk and implied he was to blame for his own murder.”
Mace also accused Omar of reposting a video that said, “Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single s— about Charlie Kirk. They’re just using his death to further their Christo-fascist agenda.”
Other progressives leaped to Omar’s defense, including Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., who posted on X, “Babe, those are not direct quotes from Ilhan Omar. According to the APA, if you use a direct quotation, it must sustain your claim. The quotes you used are not Ilhan’s words, they are not in context and do not prove your point. Read before you tweet.”
It’s one of several measures targeting Omar over her comments.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who is running for Senate, introduced his own measure to strip Omar of her committee assignments on Monday.
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