House to vote on Omar rebuke Thursday

Congress

House leaders plan to hold a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on Thursday, even as the text as yet to be finalized.

The House will vote Thursday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, an indirect rebuke of controversial comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar that has inflamed the Democratic Caucus and which party leaders are eager to put behind them.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made the announcement in a closed-door meeting Thursday morning.

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“It’s going to say that we are against bigotry, we are against prejudice, we’re against hate, against whomever that is directed,” Hoyer told reporters after the meeting.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), one of the lead authors of the resolution, confirmed that text was expected to be released publicly Thursday morning. Senior Democratic staffers were still working to finalize the text as Hoyer made the announcement about vote timing.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team urgently want to move past the debate over Omar’s comments — a suggestion that pro-Israel advocates have “allegiance” to a foreign country — after a tense intraparty fight over how to respond.

Democratic leaders are hoping a vote on the resolution Thursday will ease tensions within the caucus and allow them to turn their focus to the expansive anti-corruption and voting reform bill that will come up for a vote Friday. The measure, H.R. 1, represents a key plank of their successful campaign to take back the House last year.

The controversy surrounding Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, has exposed sharp divides within the Democratic caucus along generational and ideological lines.

Democrats on both sides of the debate were hesitant to immediately endorse the resolution after the morning meeting, saying that want to see the text first.

“I have to read it,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Omar’s staunchest defenders, when asked if she would support the resolution.

The New York Democrat offered a lengthy defense of Omar on Twitter earlier this week, describing in a series of tweets what she saw as Democratic leaders’ hypocrisy in their push to police controversial comments made by some lawmakers but not others.

Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), who criticized Omar on Twitter and demanded she apologize earlier this week, said he too wasn’t sure yet whether he was going to support the resolution.

“I want to make sure that it’s a strong statement against anti-Semitism,” Vargas said.

The language of the resolution has been dividing Democrats since text first began circulating Monday night.

Some of Omar’s closest allies, including members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus, erupted this week after they learned the resolution was aimed at her specific comments on Israel.

Democratic leaders later agreed to broaden the resolution to condemn all forms of hate speech — a nod to last week’s incident involving an anti-Muslim poster featured at a West Virginia GOP event that appeared to link Omar with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But some Jewish lawmakers have privately complained that the new language dilutes the initial message of rejecting anti-Semitism, which they say was much-deserved after Omar was forced to apologize for previous comments.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), one of the Jewish lawmakers involved with drafting the resolution, said he is okay with broadening the text to condemn other forms of bigotry, but emphasized that the anti-Semitism language can’t be watered it down. He wants it to tackle specific statements made by Omar.

“I have no problem with it addressing other issues,” Gottheimer told reporters. “But I just want to make sure it address the dual loyalty question… I want it to address the anti-Semitic issues.”

Tensions flared again Thursday after House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said in an interview with The Hill that Omar’s own experiences fleeing violence in Somalia were “more personal” than those of Jews who are generations removed from the Holocaust.

“I’m serious about that. There are people who tell me, ‘Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors.’ ‘My parents did this.’ It’s more personal with her,” Clyburn said. “I’ve talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.”

Rep. Max Rose, a Jewish lawmaker who has been pushing the resolution, said Democrats need to be more “vigilant” in confronting all forms of anti-Semitism in both parties.

“The most important thing is what happens the day after the resolution… constantly working to counteract anti-Semitism,” Rose said, adding that it includes “calling out the Republicans when they’re doing things that are incredibly anti-Semitic.”

Pelosi was seen huddling with senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Clyburn, on the House floor Wednesday afternoon in an effort to determine what the powerful voting bloc would support in a resolution.

Later Wednesday, Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn had an emergency meeting with some senior Jewish lawmakers including Engel, in an effort to reach an agreement on a resolution that members on both sides of the debate could support.

Democrats are furious that the internal drama has sucked up so much oxygen on Capitol Hill and overshadowed their upcoming floor vote on one of the signature legislative priorities of the party.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) lashed out at a group of reporters on Thursday morning, growing visibly upset as she criticized the media for not focusing on Democratic accomplishments.

“And what do you guys want to talk about? You want to talk about divide in the caucus,” said Schakowsky, raising her voice. “I just think that it is shameful that it is being exploited, not just by the Republicans, but also by the press.”