The House of Representatives killed a censure resolution from Congresswoman Nancy Mace that would have removed Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from her committee assignments. Ms. Omar had reposted a video calling conservative activist Charlie Kirk “reprehensible” in the wake of his assassination. 

Following Kirk’s killing last week, Republicans went on a tear against their Democratic colleagues in the House, accusing them of using rhetoric that led a young man to shoot Kirk in the neck. Ms. Omar herself has unequivocally condemned the shooting and said she is heartbroken for Kirk’s widow and children. 

Ultimately, the censure was killed by a single vote — 214 to 213. Four Republicans joined with all Democrats to vote to table the resolution. 

One of the defectors, Congressman Tom McClintock, said that he despises the message that Ms. Omar shared, though he could not censure her because that speech is protected by the First Amendment. 

“Censure is formal punishment by the House and we have already gone too far down this road. Omar’s comments were not made in the House and even if they were, they broke no House rules,” he said in a statement.  

“A free society depends on tolerating ALL speech — even hateful speech — confident that the best way to sort good from evil is to put the two side by side and trust the people to know the difference,” Mr. McClintock added. 

Ms. Mace, a South Carolina congresswoman who is running for governor, has gone so far as to tell Ms. Omar to go back to her home country of Somalia. 

“One-way ticket to Somalia with your name on it, Ilhan Omar,” Ms. Mace wrote in an X post on Wednesday. 

“Please take your brother husband with you and stay there. Signed, The American People,” she wrote in another. 

The censure resolution Ms. Mace filed does not include quotes from Ms. Omar herself, but rather from the video that the Minnesota Democrat shared on X following Kirk’s death. 

“Charlie Kirk is dead, and before the body got cold, the far­ Right propped his corpse up as a cudgel for their holy war,” a man in the video shared by Ms. Omar says. “Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single s— about Charlie Kirk, they are just using his death to further their Christofascist agenda.”

Ms. Mace’s resolution singles out quotes from the video, including the narrator describing Kirk as “a reprehensible human being” who “enacted his political agenda by preying on weak minded people.” The video also described Kirk as a “stochastic terrorist” and “an adamant transphobe.” 

“He denied the genocide happening in Palestine, he believed in the subjugation of women, and in his last dying words he was spewing racist dog whistles.” the man in the video says. 

“Charlie Kirk was Dr. Frankenstein and his monster shot him through the neck,” the narrator added. 

The video further stated that “none of us should want to live in a society where these types of killings become the norm,” and that individuals should “denounce this violence and also realize that Kirk and his ilk’s rhetoric is why it happens.”

In an interview with Zeteo the day after the assassination, Ms. Omar explicitly condemned the killing and expressed her concern about the prevalence of political violence. 

“It was really mortifying to hear the news, to see the video,” she said. “All I could think about was his wife, his children. That image is going to live forever.”

She mentioned that her husband knows the daughters of Malcolm X, who like Kirk’s children have to live their lives knowing that they will never see their father again because of political violence. Those women were present when their father was killed, just like Kirk’s young daughter and son were when he was killed in Utah last week. 

“My husband has known the daughters of Malcolm, and they have talked to him about, you know, what being in-person for their dad’s execution meant to them, what that trauma has meant for them,” Ms. Omar said. “My heart does break for those babies,” she said of Kirk’s children.