US: House committee head does not want Omar removed

WASHINGTON

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said he does not want congresswoman Ilhan Omar removed from the panel after she made comments criticized as anti-Semitic.

Asked about the penalty which has been demanded by some Republican lawmakers, Engel told CNN he is "not close to it."

"I don't know that that would do anything except exacerbate the situation even more," he said Tuesday. "I'm looking to get rid of anti-Semitism, not looking to punish anybody."

Engel, who is Jewish, has been among those criticizing comments made by Omar, most recently her claim that U.S. lawmakers are being confronted with "the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," referring to Israel.

Engel called the remarks "unacceptable and deeply offensive," but Omar has refused to apologize as the Democratic-controlled House plans to vote on a resolution that implicitly condemns the freshman congresswoman.

That resolution was updated Tuesday to include not just a condemnation of anti-Semitism, but also Islamophobia, according to CNN, after Omar was the target of hatred last week.

The vote on the resolution was originally planned for Wednesday, but it has been cast into doubt after lawmakers sought to revise its language.

Engel said while Omar's remarks "have been very troubling," he hopes elected officials grow while in office.

"I would hope the same thing would happen to her, but I'm not going to sit silent as long as there are people who are yelling out anti-Semitic tropes or anti-anything tropes," he said.