Saturday, the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee voted in favor of a resolution urging the Alabama congressional delegation to introduce and carry legislation to expel Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota.
State Representative Tommy Hanes, R-Bryant, introduced the resolution. The resolution was introduced too late to be reviewed by the ALGOP’s Resolutions Committee. Under Alabama Republican Party rules, any member of the executive committee can introduce a resolution from the floor; but to pass without going through the Resolutions Committee requires a two-thirds majority vote. It didn’t matter. Hanes resolution passed anyway.
Hanes told the full executive committee that Omar’s criticism of American troops and her criticism of Israel and call for a boycott of the American ally in the Middle East meant that she no longer deserved to have a seat in Congress.
One Republican stood up to oppose the resolution. He stood that he did not support Omar’s comments or conduct, but was worried about the precedent being set here. The people in her district in Minnesota elected her and we should not be undoing their election any more than we would want them expelling our Congress members.
Former State Representative Perry O. Hooper, R-Montgomery, spoke in favor of Hanes’s Resolution to expel Ilhan Omar from Congress.
“I rose to speak to spoke in favor of Representative Tommy Hanes’s resolution calling for the expulsion of Ilhan Omar because I believe The Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee should take the lead in the fight against the Democrat’s remake of America into a socialist nightmare that supports Castro in Cuba, Madura in Venezuela and the Mullahs in Iran,” Hooper said. “Omar consistently makes statements against one of our greatest allies Israel, that ought to be rejected by every American. She ignores her constitutional duty to protect our borders. She does not support American values and should not be allowed to spew her hate of our great country as a member of Congress. Vice President Mike Pence as always is right on this issue. Nancy Pelosi should heed his words and immediately remove her from al committee assignments and let the process for her expulsion begin.”
There was a line of speakers standing to speak in support of the resolution when a motion was made to close debate so the committee could vote. The next speaker in line insisted that he speak anyway.
“The lady is guilty of sedition and we need to kick her ass out,” he said simply.
The motion passed easily.
Ilhan Omar is an immigrant from Somalia turned naturalized citizen. She and fellow “squad” member Rashida Talib, D-Michigan, are the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress.
An Alabama Republican Party resolution is not binding on members of the Alabama congressional delegation. The Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives, and they are unlikely to remove their members for conduct that is not criminal.
