WASHINGTON — Partisan bitterness has escalated on Capitol Hill since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) pushed Wednesday not only to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over her response to the killing but for Omar to be stripped of her citizenship and deported.
“Fuck her,” Mace told HuffPost in an interview.
Mace’s censure resolution accuses Omar of having “smeared Charlie Kirk and implied he was to blame for his own murder.” The resolution goes further than just censure and would remove Omar from her committee assignments.
Four Republicans joined all Democrats in moving to table the resolution Wednesday evening by a vote of 214 to 213.
“Nancy Mace is a complete and total disgrace. Her racist, unhinged and xenophobic comments about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar are beneath the dignity of the Congress,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said before the vote. “Is this what civility looks like in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives?”
The censure push came as Republicans clamor for anyone celebrating Kirk’s murder on social media to be fired from their jobs, and as President Donald Trump and top officials in his administration vow some sort of crackdown on “radical left” groups they claim organize political violence. Charging documents suggest Kirk’s assassin was motivated by left politics and a belief Kirk was spreading “hate,” but don’t suggest he had any ties to organizations.
In retaliation for the Omar censure resolution, Democrats introduced a censure resolution of their own against Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) over an alleged assault against a romantic partner. Mills has denied the allegation and not been charged with a crime.
“If there’s going to be censures of anyone, it should be those folks that are actually inciting violence, or who have had very serious allegations of physical violence against them, like Congressman Mills,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who introduced the Mills censure resolution, told HuffPost.
The Omar censure claims “Omar’s actions in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk are reprehensible and affect the dignity and integrity of the proceedings of the House.”
In an interview with Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan the day after the shooting, Omar first expressed horror at Kirk’s killing and sympathy for his family. Omar made similar comments in an interview with HuffPost the same day.
“It was really mortifying to hear the news, to see the video. You know, all I could think about was his wife, his children. That image is going to live forever,” Omar told Hasan. “My heart does break for those babies.”
Later in the interview, Omar criticized some of Kirk’s past statements, including his joking that a “patriot” should bail out the man arrested for attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Omar said the likes of Trump and Mace were “full of shit” for blaming Kirk’s killing on leftist rhetoric even as they demonize their own political opponents.
“I just want people to live in reality and understand where the problem is, and people who, you know, are carrying out these rhetorics that are causing harm and division in our country, and not come for those of us who are just trying to tell the truth about where we are and where we need to go,” Omar said.
Mace’s resolution doesn’t include any quotes from the interview, but does quote extensively from an anti-Kirk video by someone else that Omar reposted. Omar noted Republicans are trying to censure her over words she’s never said.
Mace’s censure resolution was the second one to get blocked this month. Several Republicans voted against a censure resolution this month against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) over her alleged interference with federal officers outside an immigration facility earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Omar and Mace traded insults on social media, with Mace saying Omar should be deported to Somalia, where she was born. Omar said Mace should go to rehab.
“She’s a nasty human being. She hates her country. She hates our country so much she doesn’t have to be here,” Mace told HuffPost. “She’s disgusting, she’s vile. She’s literally accusing me of substance abuse. When have you ever seen me abuse any substance? She’s a liar and she’s a vile human.”
Mills told HuffPost he was happy to face the Democrats’ censure vote, but Casar didn’t call up his motion after Mace’s got tabled. Mills wound up voting with Democrats alongside Republican Reps. Mike Flood (Neb.), Jeff Hurd (Col.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.).
Mills said censuring Omar went against First Amendment principles, though it’s likely his vote against the resolution spared him from facing his own censure vote.
“We may not like or agree with what someone says, but that does not mean we should deny their 1A Right,” Mills said in a social media response to Mace.