Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney on Sunday charged Democratic congressional leaders with 'protecting' Rep. Ilhan Omar's 'bigotry and anti-Semitism' by 'refusing to name her' in their anti-hate resolution that passed the House last week.
Cheney explained to NBC's "Meet the Press" she voted against the resolution because she was angry at how Democrats weren't holding Omar accountable by naming her or stripping her of seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
'I decided to vote against it because I think it was really clearly an effort to actually protect Ilhan Omar, to cover up her bigotry and anti-Semitism by refusing to name her,' Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said on the Sunday show.
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney charged Democratic congressional leaders with 'protecting' Rep. Ilhan Omar's 'bigotry and anti-Semitism'
Rep. Ilhan Omar came under fire for suggesting that supporters of Israel were urging lawmakers to have 'allegiance to a foreign country'
'The Democrats have yet to take any action to remove her from her committee. And they've got a real problem. I mean, the extent to which they are now abiding by anti-Semitism, enabling anti-Semitism in their party is something we watched them struggle with but something that's very dangerous for the country. So I'm hopeful that they will be able to stand up and do the right thing on this,' she added.
Cheney also blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer for not including Omar's name in the resolution, which condemned hateful language against a variety of groups.
'I think it is absolutely shameful that Nancy Pelosi, and Leader Hoyer, and the Democratic leaders will not put her name in a resolution on the floor, and condemn her remarks, and remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,' she said.
Cheney, a member of the House GOP leadership, dismissed questions about whether her fellow Republican leaders were angry at her for voting no on the resolution.
The rest of the GOP House leadership voted in favor of it and urged other Republican lawmakers to do the same, their argument being it was a vote against hate language and they wanted to show their unity on the matter.
'You know how the Hill works. There are always those anonymous sources who are out there sniping,' Cheney said of the rumors.
'The important thing for us to be focused on and to remember, the Democrats have been in charge now for about two and a half months in the House. And in that time they've become the party of anti-Semitism, the party of infanticide, the party of Socialism,' she said.
Politico reported last week that Republicans were 'quite peeved at Cheney' for voting differently from leadership on the resolution.
Republicans hoped to contrast Democrats' attempts to handle the Omar controversy with their handling of conservative Rep. Steve King, who was charged with being sympathetic to white supremacists.
King was stripped of his committee assignments by GOP leadership, a move that left him basically powerless in the House.
The House on Thursday passed a resolution condemning anti-hate language after alleged anti-semitic comments from Omar consumed lawmakers' attention for a week.
The final vote was 407 to 23 with one lawmaker voting present. All the no votes were Republicans.
As the gavel slammed down to close the vote, it carried with it the hopes of Democratic leaders that the issue can be put to rest and the party can move forward after an internecine
