Rep. Ilhan Omar defiant after GOP vote to remove her from Foreign Affairs Committee

Now to the congressional drama in Washington where this morning Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar remains defiant after Republicans took the dramatic step of voting to remove her from the foreign affairs committee. Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced? My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I am not on this committee for one term. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the move was in response to Omar's past comments which both Republicans and Democrats condemned as anti-semitic comments Omar later apologized for. For more we're joined by NBC News congressional correspondent Julie Sirkin. So Julie the White House has called this a political stun. How are House Democrats responding? Yeah there were a series of impassioned speeches on the floor yesterday as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle debated this issue just ahead of the vote that ultimately led to Ilhan Omar that congresswoman from Minnesota to be booted off the powerful foreign affairs committee for several anti-semitic comments that she has made in the past and apologized for and her Democratic colleagues took to the floor in support. I want you to take a listen to what one of them had to say and we'll talk about it on the other side. Don't tell me this is about consistency. Don't tell me that this is about a condemnation of anti-semitic remarks when you have a member of the Republican caucus who has talked about Jewish space lasers and an entire amount of tropes and also elevated her to some of the highest committee assignments in this body. So of course she's talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. There is talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene the member who Democrats actually had to boot off of committees because of her remarks about Jews anti-semitic tropes that she had made comments about 9-11 as well. Now Marjorie Taylor Greene is back on powerful committees including oversight and homeland. So of course Democrats seeing this as historically hypocrisy from Republicans. Yes and it's a double standard on their end. I mean Julie we got to mention the vote to remove Omar almost did not happen. Originally not all Republicans wanted to take her off the foreign affairs committee. That's important to point out. So what was going on behind the scenes and what exactly changed? Yeah exactly Zinkley. When we started this week you know Kevin McCarthy the house speaker didn't have the vote to boot Ilhan Omar off of this committee. That's because several Republicans spoke out including lawmakers like Victoria Sparks, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Ken Buck from Colorado. All of them got concessions from Speaker McCarthy which is I think very significant that McCarthy used his limited political capital to make this happen. He conceded to those members that there will be some kind of bipartisan process in the future that Ilhan Omar will be able to repeal this somehow with the house ethics panel which is why one member actually a Republican from Ohio voted present. He's on the ethics committee and wants to make sure that there is due process here for Omar. Julie you're in D.C. it's no secret the house is seemingly as divided as ever. Speaker McCarthy who we're just talking about is proposing actually creating a panel to come up with a code of conduct for members sitting on committees. What can you tell us about that? Yeah this was one of those concessions he made to those three members and look it's not clear if Joaquin Jeffries the Democratic leader is going to take him up on this but just in the few weeks that this congress has been running in the house we've seen really just partisan entanglements on these powerful committees. It's not clear that they're able to run them effectively. I've heard from lawmakers on both sides expressing concern just over this partisan bickering and so Kevin McCarthy is proposing a bipartisan commission to examine now and in the future any member who makes any sort of comment or rules by which these members will then be able to be booted off these committees to make sure it's not as much of a partisan process in the future as we've seen in the last two years both under Democrats and Republicans. So again not clear if this commission is ever going to come to light but it's certainly a nice idea that McCarthy has. A lot to watch out for. Julie Serkin, thank you. Thanks for watching our YouTube channel. Follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app.