Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., plans to introduce a resolution condemning Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and removing her from her committee assignments over a joke she made about Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
“For a Member of Congress to repeatedly use hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic tropes towards a Muslim colleague is dangerous,” Pressley said in a statement. “It has no place in our society and it diminishes the honor of the institution we serve in.”
The resolution is being joined by nearly a dozen other far-left Democrats, according to the Washington Post, including Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Judy Chu (Calif.), Jesús García (Ill.), Jimmy Gomez (Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez (N.Y.).
Boebert came under fire last week after she joked at a campaign event that Omar could have been considered a security risk. She said she was getting into an elevator with Omar when a Capitol Police officer came running up to them.
“Well, she doesn’t have a backpack,” Boebert said to herself. “We should be fine.”
Boebert later apologized to Omar publicly, but said that a private phone call with Omar did not go well.
Omar allegedly demanded that Boebert make a public apology, while Boebert insisted Omar also make a public apology for “her anti-American, antisemitic, anti-police rhetoric.” Omar eventually hung up on her, Boebert said.
Omar has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to take formal action against Boebert as well, but Pelosi has not yet announced whether she will address the matter.
When asked about it on Wednesday, Pelosi said it is up to Republican leaders to punish the “disgraceful, unacceptable behavior of their members.”
Pressley, however, insisted that Democrats must punish Boebert.
“The House must unequivocally condemn this incendiary rhetoric and immediately pass this resolution,” Pressley continued. “How we respond in moments like these will have lasting impacts, and history will remember us for it.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and others have warned that Democrats’ overzealous power-grabs and violations of long-established House norms—such as targeting members of the opposing party for politically motivated censure or contempt charges—may come back to haunt them if and when the GOP regains control of Congress, which many project will be the case in next year’s midterm elections.
