Omar's remarks about Charlie Kirk become fodder for GOP censure push

Sydney Kashiwagi, Star Tribune on Sep 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON – Rep. Ilhan Omar has found herself at the center of a effort by congressional Republicans to punish those who celebrated the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk or spoke ill of him after his death.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who’s running for governor in her home state of South Carolina, brought a resolution forward this week that seeks to censure Omar and strip her of her committee assignments for speaking critically of Kirk after his death.

Democrats are defending Omar, who quickly condemned Kirk’s assassination but grappled with his legacy during an interview shortly after his shooting. Democratic leadership plans to try to block Mace’s resolution Wednesday evening.

“Nancy Mace wants to lecture Ilhan Omar and Democrats about civility. Are you kidding me?” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters during a news conference. “It’s not a serious effort. It’s an effort to drive donors into her gubernatorial campaign.”

A video clip of Omar from an interview she did after Kirk’s assassination was widely shared and rebuked by the right, which accused her of celebrating Kirk’s death.

In the clip, she discussed his position on guns and criticized Kirk for downplaying the death of George Floyd, as well as slavery and “what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth should never exist.”

Things intensified after Omar reposted a video on social media of a narrator criticizing Kirk for being a “stochastic terrorist, an adamant transphobe.”

Omar’s Chief of Staff Connor McNutt sent an email to all U.S. House chiefs of staff warning them that much of Mace’s resolution focused on things taken out of context in the interview clip and words spoken by a narrator in video not Omar.

After his assassination, Omar posted on X that while she disagreed with Kirk, “my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone.”

In a counter to Mace, Rep. Greg Casar, Omar’s colleague in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced a censure motion of his own against GOP Rep. Cory Mills, who’s faced allegations of domestic violence.

Both motions come at a critical time for Congress as Republicans try to pass a continuing resolution bill by week’s end to avoid a government shutdown.

It’s unclear if Republicans will want to move forward with either censure motions. The last time a motion to censure a House member advanced, five Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to table the measure.

Minnesota GOP Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber both said they had not seen Mace’s resolution.

Kirk’s death and the censure debate have raised questions over free speech and what crosses the line.

“To those claiming they’re for free speech while punishing and silencing those for exercising the right: You’re not pro-free speech,” Omar said on X this week.

DFL Rep. Betty McCollum said in an interview that the censure effort is being deliberately used to intensify the divide between Democrats and Republicans.

“She was expressing what many people were expressing — shock, sadness and grief that political violence is now becoming commonplace in this country,” McCollum continued, “and some of my Republican colleagues have chosen to just take other remarks and add to them.”

This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to censure Omar, who was ousted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023 over her controversial past statements on Israel.

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska tried to censure Omar last year following remarks she made about Jewish students during a visit to Columbia University. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also brought a censure motion against her following mistranslated remarks in which Omar talked about her support for Somali Americans. Both efforts never were voted on.

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