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FIRST ON FOX: House Main Street Caucus Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., will refer Democratic colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for a House Ethics Committee investigation, he first told Fox News Digital.
It is the latest move in the GOP-led fallout over Omar’s response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist who was shot and killed in Utah during a college campus speaking event last week.
“I will be filing tomorrow … a complaint with the Committee on Ethics in the House of Representatives with 18 very concerning incidents and/or behaviors and/or statements that, on their face, reflect poorly on the House of Representatives,” Flood said of Omar.
The top of the list of complaints will include the progressive Democrat’s “obnoxious, insulting and dismissive comments following the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” he said.
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“Second, harboring illegal immigrants. I believe in February of this year that Omar hosted a workshop advising Somalians on how to avoid being deported after protecting the laws of the United States,” Flood continued of his points. “No. 3, she’s used TikTok for mixed official and campaign content, which specifically violates other House rules.”
Flood was one of four House Republicans to help Omar narrowly avoid being censured by the House on Wednesday evening.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., moved to force a vote on censuring Omar over her reaction to Kirk’s killing, but the move was quashed when four Republicans and all Democrats voted to table the measure.
Flood said at the time of his vote, “Ilhan Omar’s statements and social media posts are reprehensible and should be referred to the Ethics Committee. The appropriate time to consider a censure motion would be after ethics reviews her conduct.”
He told Fox News Digital on Thursday that initiating an ethics investigation would make a censure “far more credible.”
Flood pointed out that he similarly voted to table a censure threat against Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., for her conduct outside a New Jersey ICE facility before the ethics committee could issue a report on the matter.
“And so I have gathered enough information, starting yesterday, before I voted to table, understanding that this was an issue,” Flood said.
He also disagreed with the other three House Republicans who all said Omar’s comments were protected by the First Amendment.
“This isn’t a free speech issue. This is a ‘Have you demonstrated that you are behaving at all times in a manner that reflects credibly on the House?’” Flood said.
Omar specifically faced backlash over an interview with progressive news outlet Zeteo, in which she criticized Kirk’s past commentary and Republicans’ reaction to the shooting. She later accused Republicans of taking her words out of context, and she called Kirk’s death “mortifying.”
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She previously told Zeteo days after Kirk’s assassination that he had “downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.”
“There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,” the “Squad” member said. “There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.”
She later posted on X amid the backlash, “While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion. Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis.”
Omar also reposted a video on X, where others not associated with the congresswoman said, “Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single s— about Charlie Kirk. They’re just using his death to further their Christo-fascist agenda.”
The Minnesota Democrat’s colleagues have vehemently defended her against Mace’s censure and Republican criticism.
Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for a response to Flood but did not immediately hear back.
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