Reap what you sow: Democrats now express regret for skirting norms to boot Republicans from committees

The chickens came home to roost.

Some Democratic lawmakers expressed regret that their party organized the forced removal of two Republican lawmakers from their committees two years ago. The spirit of contrition was voiced on Wednesday, one day before the House voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

What did the Democrats say?

At a House Ethics Committee hearing, Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) admitted that Republicans were right when they warned two years ago that removing GOP lawmakers from committees would later come back to bite Democrats.

In February 2021, the House stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from her committees. Nine months later, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was stripped of his assignments and censured.

"I do concede that some of the warnings about the dangers," said Neguse of removing Greene and Gosar, "were prescient."

Moreover, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Susan Wild (D-Penn.), admitted that "I don't think that it was the correct process" to remove the Republican lawmakers without going through traditional Ethics Committee procedures, the Jewish Insider reported. She disclosed that she shared conversations with colleagues at the time worrying that removing Greene and Gosar would establish bad precedents.

Additionally, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) admitted to the Jewish Insider that the way in which Democrats lorded over the removal of Greene and Gosar from their committees "was not consistent with the way the institution had been run in the past."

What happened in Omar?

The Minnesota Democrat was officially removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee after the House passed a resolution on her removal. Three Republicans abstained from voting, while one voted "present."

Democrats responded to the vote by accusing Republicans of exacting partisan revenge, alleging they targeted Omar because she is Muslim and African.

Before the vote, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Republicans who were opposed to removing Omar. Those meetings resulted in promises that, in the future, it will be more difficult to remove lawmakers from committees, especially without giving them due process.

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