Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Newsmax Friday that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was ousted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for national security reasons.
"I think for many members, certainly for me, I was concerned about her ability to view classified information, such that is required for members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, regarding national security, as well as when you would have world leaders that would ask Rep. Omar to not be present in their countries or to be involved or view critical information that deals with our national security and our relationships with them," Perry said during an appearance on Newsmax’s "Wake Up America." "So, those things become a problem."
House Republicans voted to remove Omar from the committee Thursday after a raucous debate, citing anti-Israel remarks the Somali-born Muslim lawmaker has made in the past.
"We were not assailing her First Amendment rights, even though I might find many of the things she says objectionable or problematic, but she does have the right to say them," Perry stressed. "To me, it's about national security and classified information that must be safeguarded for the sake of our country."
When asked if the move was about exacting political revenge for when the Democrats booted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., from their committee assignments two years ago, Perry said, "It's completely different."
"It's pretty apparent, and it should be pretty apparent to everybody, that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat Party kicked those two people off of every single committee," he said. "Rep. Omar is not being removed from every single committee, just that one committee. She's serving on the other committees that she should."
Touching on the Chinese reconnaissance balloon flying over Montana, the Keystone State congressman said he wasn’t sure if the balloon "is anything more than a publicity statement by the Chinese Communist Party."
"But at the same time, let's remember that TikTok is out there collecting up all this information on American citizens, that the Chinese Communist Party is buying up sensitive land close to military installations, that they're stealing intellectual property at the rate of $300-$600 billion a year," Perry said. "We've got a lot of problems with the Communist Chinese Party and this balloon might not be the biggest one of them."
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