Of principle, everybody.
And welcome Inside Politics.
I'm John King in Washington.
You're watching a fiery
speech on the floor
of the House of Representatives.
That is Democratic Representativ
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
The House is about to vote
to kick her off the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.
She is speaking right now
saying, yes, she's a Muslim, yes
she's a refugee.
Yes, she has said
some controversial things,
but she says she's a proud Ameri
Interviews should be considered
by Republicans and Democrats ali
Let's listen stronger.
And my leadership
will be celebrated around the wo
As it has been.
So take your vote or not.
I am here to stay.
And I am here to be a voice agai
around the world
and advocate for a better world.
I yield back
again.
Ilhan Omar
speaking a
fiery address, a defiant speech
on the floor
of the House of Representatives.
The Republican led House is abou
to kick her off the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.
She says it is retribution.
She says it is unfair.
She says it is un-American,
but she says it is no surprise t
Tracing Donald Trump's
support of the birther movement.
The Republicans who said Barack
Obama as president was secretly
Let's get to our chief
congressional correspondent, Man
Mano this vote.
You just heard the defiance
from Congressman Omar, the vote
that will take place in moments
is a key
test of the new speaker, Kevin M
He has a very narrow majority
and many of his members
are a little squishy about this.
Yeah, no question about it.
He can only lose four Republican
in order to allow this
this to succeed,
to kick her off of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.
And he has been moving
behind the scenes
over the last several days
to shore up
concerns, concerns about this ti
that has occurred after Democrat
moved to Republicans
off of their committee assignmen
last Congress
McCarthy vowing some retribution
for Ilhan Omar.
Ever since that happened here
and a lot of Republicans
agreeing with them,
but some concern about it.
But behind the scenes,
McCarthy has locked up the votes
He has indicated that he has mad
that his members are in line.
Just moments ago,
Congresswoman Nancy Mace,
who is one who has said
that she would
oppose this
because of her concern
about the precedent
this would set by setting King o
another member of the committee,
expanding a precedent
from the last Congress.
She said she's actually
going to vote for this
because she got an agreement
from the speaker
to figure out a new process goin
to allow members to appeal any e
to try to kick them off of the c
There's going to be some languag
change to the resolution here,
and that's one reason why.
And here's
Congressman George Santos here.
Mr. Santos, can you explain?
Did you set up a fake GoFundMe,
your account
to try to defraud and cheat
a veteran out of $3,000?
Can you explain if that happened
Mr.
Santos, why does he have text me
Why does he have text messages
saying that
you set up this fake GoFundMe in
Mr.
Santos,
you're facing
a federal investigation here.
This is very serious.
Can you explain to your voters
and your constituents
what happened with this
with this veteran?
The conversations that you had w
Mr.
Santos,
you have a chance now to clear u
the fabrications from your caree
you made up where you worked
from, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs.
Why did you make up those?
Why did you make that up?
Can you explain that to voters h
Are you going to resign?
Is there any would it be
wouldn't it be better for your v
if you resigned your seat in Con
Are Mr.
Santos
so as you can see, John,
we're covering various issues he
At the same time, one
Ilhan Omar, as we're talking up
here, one serious issue,
another one talks
Santos, the congressman from New
the Republican
who is
embattled, of course, facing
numerous
investigations, a federal invest
one of which
that we learned about yesterday
to look into
allegedly setting up a
go fund me account, a fake
go fund me account
in scamming a homeless veteran
out of money.
3000 or so.
That's an investigation
that appears to be happening
out of New York.
Tried to ask him about that
if he actually did that.
Not, of course not
answering that question
or about all the other fabricati
from his life.
So, John, that's one issue.
The other issue about to happen
on the House floor, the House
about to vote
to kick off Ilhan Omar from the
Foreign Affairs Committee.
There is a belief among
the Republican leadership
they will have the votes to do
just that here
as many things are happening
here, developing at the same tim
They're
going to come back to that
in just a moment. To the news pa
Connect the dots for me here.
One of the reasons
Kevin McCarthy,
the speaker, has stood
by George Santos so far
is because in that vote
that's about to happen.
Guess what?
Kevin McCarthy needs George
Santos's vote, correct?
Yeah, he does.
In fact,
that's one
big reason why
he has not called on him to resi
McCarthy did tell us yesterday
when he came back from the White
that he has called
new questions about Santos.
And that is one reason
why he supports the decision of
to get off
of those two House committees
that he made that voluntary deci
to step aside there.
But McCarthy would not say what
those new questions were,
whether they're about his campai
finances, which, of course,
it appears to be part
of this investigation.
Into him going forward.
But McCarthy has so far
not called on him to resign,
even though we've heard Republic
have after Republican back
home, New York
Republicans,
including some in the delegation
here in the House, asking for hi
McCarthy still not going that fa
not just because he needs
the votes for Ilhan Omar
or even to get elected speaker,
but also, John, as you know,
if he stepped aside,
that would be problematic,
could flip that district conflic
to be democratic.
And the tightening, McCarthy's a
very narrow majority.