Democratic leadership denied there was any tentativeness to punish Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican for remarks she made about a colleague that Democrats are calling anti-Muslim.
“I don’t believe that there’s any hesitancy. There are active discussions about the appropriate way to proceed,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat and caucus chairman, told The Washington Times about the words aimed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat.
“I think you are now seeing at least some rank-and-file House Republicans, including most recently, Rep. [Dan] Crenshaw, indicate that this is a toxic circus that is going on on the other side of the aisle and something needs to be done about it,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Video of Mr. Crenshaw, Texas Republican, surfaced Tuesday from an appearance he made last week at an event hosted by the Texas Liberty Alliance PAC.
In the clip, Mr. Crenshaw called House Republican Freedom Caucus members such as Ms. Boebert and Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia as “grifters” and “performance artists.”
Ms. Omar revealed Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, promised her that her leadership team would take decisive action this week against Ms. Boebert.
However, Democratic leadership has not indicated whether it will use its majority to strip Ms. Boebert of her committee assignments as it did with two previous Republican lawmakers.
Additionally, House Democrats in vulnerable districts are reportedly privately disagreeing with a resolution drawn up by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts Democrat, that would strip Ms. Boebert of her committee assignments.
The most recent incident surfaced through a video clip on Thanksgiving that showed Ms. Boebert relaying a story about she and Ms. Omar in a Capitol elevator.
Ms. Boebert claimed to her audience that a police officer appeared concerned that Ms. Omar may be dangerous but she jokingly quipped that Ms. Omar “doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
She also called Ms. Omar a member of the Capitol Hill “Jihad Squad” with other progressive Democratic lawmakers.
Ms. Omar disputed the story as a fabrication and demanded that the lower chamber punish Ms. Boebert just weeks after Mr. Gosar was censured and stripped of his committees for posting an anime-style video portraying him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a sword battle.
Democrats also had previously stripped Ms. Greene of her committee seats for what they deemed to be offensive Facebook posts earlier in the year.
When asked why Democrats were not moving to punish Ms. Boebert as they had Ms. Greene and Mr. Gosar, Mrs. Pelosi said the difference was just an intensification of the Republican neglect of honoring Rule 23.
“That says that we all have a responsibility to honor the House of Representatives and serve in a way that brings honor to the House. It’s their responsibility, to deal with their people,” she said.
She added, “How we deal with addressing the fear that they have instilled in Islamophobia and the rest is something that hopefully we can do in a bipartisan way but the responsibility’s on them.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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