California Republican gets it right on defending Ilhan Omar’s free speech | Opinion

Rep. Tom McClintock, the 69-year-old Republican whose conservative principles have rankled Democrats since winning office in 2009, shocked his party by being one of four GOP House members who refused to censure a Democratic lawmaker.

In a Sept. 19 appearance on a conservative radio talk show, McClintock went further in defending not just his vote that kept Minnesota Rep. Illan Omar from getting censured but in defending free speech. A motion to censure Omar failed on a 214-213 vote.

“Democracy depends upon everybody having the freedom to speak their minds, to voice their opinions without fear of retribution,” said McClintock during his appearance on Fresno’s PowerTalk 96.7 FM. “Now, that’s not without fear of criticism because the same freedom that gives us license to voice hateful sentiments or stupid sentiments also gives men and women of goodwill the freedom to call them out on their shortcomings and reject their premises.”

Hooray for McClintock sticking to his principles at a time when all but four of his Republican colleagues in the House voted to censure Omar for exercising her free speech.

Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor in South Carolina, sought to censure Omar for remarks she said on a podcast and reposts on X in the days following the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative stalwart Charlie Kirk at a Utah college appearance.

What Ilhan Omar said

On her 30-minute appearance on a Youtube program “Zeteo Town Hall with Mehdi Hasan,” Omar spoke mostly about her War Powers Resolution to curb President Donald Trump’s use of military force on other countries.

The censure resolution referred to reposts on X by Omar that said, “Charlie Kirk is dead, and before the body got cold, the far Right propped his corpse up as a cudgel for their holy war;” “Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single sh-t about Charlie Kirk, they are just using his name to further their Christofascist agenda;” and Kirk “was a reprehensible human being … He took complex socioeconomic issues and simplified them by pointing fingers at out-groups, demonizing those groups, and siccing his massive following on them.”

Mace called Omar’s actions “reprehensible and affect the dignity and integrity of the proceedings of the House and do not reflect credibility on the House.” Mace has said Omar should be deported to her home country of Somalia.

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

Omar said Kirk downplayed slavery, believed Juneteenth should never exist and supported gun rights in the wake of school shootings.

“I’m happy to not say anything negative and let the family mourn, but it’s when everyone else tries to kind of do a whitewashing of who that person was …” said Omar on the podcast. “So obviously it was inexcusable to use violence against Charlie Kirk and to kill Charlie Kirk. No one supports the killing of anyone for their speech.”

McClintock defends Omar’s speech

“Disgusting speech should absolutely be protected,” said McClintock. “My belief is the more speech the better.”

All speech is protected by the First Amendment, he said. “The whole reason we have a Capitol building and a Congress in the first place is so that we can all come together and talk out our differences,” he said. “And our differences right now are vast, which means there’s going to be a great deal of friction and heat as a result. But this is the way democracies work.”

We may not agree with Omar or McClintock, but they have the right to exercise their free speech without fear of censorship. McClintock is absolutely correct.

This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "California Republican gets it right on defending Ilhan Omar’s free speech | Opinion."