Ilhan Omar Censure: Marjorie Taylor Greene Moves Forward With Resolution To Vote on Censure of Democratic Representative

Georgia Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene moved forward with her efforts to seek a vote to censure Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar over the latter's misquoted Somalia remarks.

The Thursday development marks the latest over a disputed translation of Omar's comments that were made about Somalia and Somaliland and accused her of being a "foreign agent." Greene recently called her censure legislation to the House floor as a privileged resolution. This is a procedural gambit that forces leadership to hold a vote on the matter within two legislative days.

Effort to Censure Ilhan Omar

(Photo : Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene pushed forward with a resolution to force a vote that would censure Democratic Minnesota Rep. Illhan Omar over the latter's Somalia remarks.

Furthermore, leadership can either bring the resolution to the floor for a vote or motion to table it and both decisions would require majority support. The situation comes as the House is leaving on Thursday and is set to reconvene on Monday.

The Georgia Republican said that she had informed leadership that she was introducing the resolution but did not get an indication of how they would act on it. On top of formal censure, Greene's resolution would remove Omar from the Budget Committee and Education and Workforce Committee, as per The Hill.

Greene noted that she would love to expel Omar, adding that she believes the Democrat should be deported. The Republican also said that any person who has been elected to represent the U.S. government and admits that they are representing the interest of a foreign government in her role as a U.S. rep should be expelled and deported.

She argued that she did not believe that they did not have enough votes for that, which is why she chose to bring forward a censure resolution instead. Under the law, only U.S. citizens can be elected to the House and Democrat is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In response, the Minnesota representative shrugged off her Republican counterpart's comments, which happaned a few minutes before Greene's formal introduction of her resolution to the floor. She said that she had nothing to say about the "insanity of that woman."

Inaccurate Translation

The latest censure resolution marks the second time that Greene has tried to censure a Muslim member of Congress in the past few months. The first was in November last year when she forced a vote on a censure resolution against Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib for allegedly "inciting an insurrection" after she spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest, according to Business Insider.

Previously, Greene said that Omar and Tlaib were not legitimate members of Congress because they were sworn in on the Quran. However, the Georgia Republican's efforts against the Minnesota official failed after 23 GOP members voted against it. Tlaib was later censured via a much more narrowly tailored resolution that happened a few days later.

However, at the forefront of the situation is a speech that Omar gave in Somali, not in English, that was inaccurately translated by a popular right-wing account. The misleading interpretation was that the Democrat said, "The U.S. government will do what we want, nothing else. They must follow our orders. That is how we safeguard the interest of Somalia."

Other local media outlets, which hired independent translators to interpret Omar's words, said that her remarks actually focused on the U.S. government respecting Somalis living in the country. And also that as long as she is in Congress, she will not let anyone take Somalia's sea, said the Washington Post.