Pressley introducing resolution to strip Boebert of committee assignments
By Daniella Diaz, CNN
Progressive Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts is introducing a resolution, cosigned by other progressives, that would strip Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of her committee assignments for her anti-Muslim and racist comments toward Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Whether the resolution will get a vote is largely up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In private meetings with Democrats, Pelosi had yet to detail her preference on how to deal with Boebert after her remarks, a person who heard the speaker told CNN on Tuesday.
Democratic leaders are leery about punishing GOP members every time they do something outlandish, the source said. Lawmakers and aides have also privately shared concerns about punishing Boebert for her rhetoric considering she wasn’t threatening violence toward Omar.
Threatening of violence is the reason why Democrats have previously moved stripped Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona of their committee assignments this Congress.
Omar had called on both Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, to take action against Boebert, and called the language “hateful and dangerous.”
“Normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims,” Omar said in a recent tweet responding to Boebert. “Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress.”
The introduction of the resolution from Pressley was first reported by The Washington Post.
It comes days after several newly-surfaced videos show Boebert implying Omar had been mistaken for a terrorist in an elevator on Capitol Hill.
Omar foreshadowed something was coming in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
“I have had a conversation with the speaker, and I’m very confident that she will take decisive action next week,” Omar told CNN’s Jake Tapper at the time.
CNN has reached out to Pelosi and Boebert’s office for comment.
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