House turns back effort to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar over remarks about
Charlie Kirk
[September 18, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
The House declined late Wednesday to punish one of its own over
commentary in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, but the
effort showed the reach of President Donald Trump's push for political
retribution and set the stage for more to come.
The 214-213 roll call shelved a resolution from GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of
South Carolina to censure Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and
have her removed from two House committees: Education and the Workforce,
and Budget. The two have feuded viciously on social media.
Mace has said Omar, an immigrant who criticized Kirk's views of gun
ownership and race relations in the aftermath of George Floyd's 2020
death in Minneapolis, should be deported to Somalia. Omar was born in
Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
Omar said Mace is pushing a false narrative to raise money “and boost
her run for Governor.”
“Is this what civility looks like in the Republican-controlled House of
Representatives?” implored Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“We live in an era of intense political violence as we have seen with
the recent assassinations of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and Turning
Point USA founder Charlie Kirk,” he said, referring to the shooting of
lawmakers in Minnesota.
The legacy of Kirk’s personal and political influence runs wide and deep
on Capitol Hill — House Speaker Mike Johnson is among those who
considered the young conservative leader a friend — and, in the week
since Kirk was assassinated, he has been memorialized in ways large and
small.
A candlelight vigil was held late Monday evening inside the Capitol’s
Statuary Hall, and a House resolution in his honor is expected to be
swiftly approved. One lawmaker, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who
wrote that she owes “my entire political career to Charlie Kirk,” is
seeking to place a statue of Kirk in the Capitol “to honor his legacy.”
At the same time, Republicans have unleashed a series of legislative
proposals echoing Trump’s call for action against what he characterizes
as the “radical left” — those challenging his views, and those of the
slain conservative leader.
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Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to set up a select committee to conduct a
“full scale investigation of the coordinated network of leftists
attacking us.”
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has promoted his bill to add rioting to
the list of prosecutable offenses under racketeering laws, and GOP
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wants Congress to revive a Cold War-era law
that would “prohibit the U.S. government from engaging in domestic,
political propaganda.” He's calling it the Charlie Kirk Act.
GOP Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia, offered another resolution focused
on reprimanding Omar, while Mace also proposed the Education
Department strip federal funding from schools that fail “to act
against staff who excuse or glorify the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
Many of those putting forward the proposals, including Roy, Carter
and Mace, are all running for higher office in their states, showing
the importance of carrying Trump's message to their broader base of
voters and supporters.
“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, policymakers must do
all they can to stop radical left-wing violence,” wrote the Heritage
Foundation's political arm, Heritage Action, in supporting Roy's
proposal for a new committee to delve into “the forces behind the
radical left’s assault on America.”
It's not the first time Congress has taken action against Omar or
other lawmakers.
In 2023, Omar was stripped of her assignment to the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, and the last Congress set a new standard for
meting out censures and punishments.
This time, when Mace offered her resolution to go after Omar,
Democratic Rep. Greg Casar of Texas put up a swift response: A
counter-effort to reprimand Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida
with a censure over allegations involving his personal and
professional conduct.
Mills was among four Republicans to join Democrats in rejecting the
resolution against Omar.
More recently, the House appears to have been cooling these efforts.
Lawmakers rejected a resolution to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J.,
and remove her from a committee assignment as she faces federal
charges stemming from a visit to an immigration detention facility.
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