{"id":16480,"date":"2025-09-19T21:03:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rep-jeff-hurd-one-of-four-republicans-to-block-censure-of-ilhan-omar-for-charlie-kirk-comments\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:58:33","slug":"rep-jeff-hurd-one-of-four-republicans-to-block-censure-of-ilhan-omar-for-charlie-kirk-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rep-jeff-hurd-one-of-four-republicans-to-block-censure-of-ilhan-omar-for-charlie-kirk-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Jeff Hurd one of four Republicans to block censure of Ilhan Omar for Charlie Kirk comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks during a news conference, May 24, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin\/Associated Press file)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 The U.S. House of Representatives attempted to censure Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday over a retweet involving conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. The censure failed by a 214-213 vote, with four House Republicans voting against it \u2013 including Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District.<\/p>\n

The censure resolution was pushed by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and would have removed Omar from all committee assignments. Omar denied making any direct comments about Kirk and pointed out that Mace\u2019s censure resolution had no direct quotes from her. Rather, it was focused on her retweets criticizing Kirk\u2019s political beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike (Mace), I have routinely condemned political violence, no matter the political ideology,\u201d Omar wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Later that day, Hurd hosted a telephone town hall to answer questions from constituents. When asked about why he voted against the censure, he cited his belief in the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

\"Hurd\"
Hurd<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIlhan Omar is a crazy liberal Congresswoman from Minnesota and she made some comments about Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination,\u201d Hurd said during the town hall. \u201c\u2026 (She) said a bunch of horrible and evil things about Charlie Kirk and also about the people who support him and who believe in what he was talking about. Those comments are ghoulish and they\u2019re also evil and I condemn them completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurd said he voted against the censure motion because it \u201ctried to strip (Omar) from her committee assignments and it tried to silence her for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech.\u201d He said the proper response to \u201creprehensible speech\u201d is not to silence someone, but more speech \u2013 which he said Charlie Kirk believed and practiced.<\/p>\n

The next constituent to speak during the town hall cautioned Hurd against using the word \u201ccrazy\u201d to describe an individual. As a mental health provider, they said they found the term \u201ca little offensive.\u201d The constituent encouraged Hurd to self-reflect on his use of the word.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for your comments also about civility and discourse. I think those are well taken \u2013 good point,\u201d Hurd responded.<\/p>\n

Hurd and the other three House Republicans who voted against the censure \u2013 Reps. Mike Flood of Nebraska, Tom McClintock of California and Cory Mills of Florida \u2013 are facing backlash from fellow conservatives.<\/p>\n

Other constituents at the town hall raised questions about Medicaid, the \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d and public lands protection.<\/p>\n

Hurd sent out a statement a few days following Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie Kirk\u2019s assassination is a tragic loss \u2013 for his wife and children, first and foremost, but also for our country,\u201d Hurd wrote. \u201cPublic life carries an elevated risk of violence. That reality has a history in America, but it should never become normal in America. Political violence can\u2019t be tolerated, and we must condemn it in every case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abigail Hatting is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ahatting@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman defends First Amendment rights during telephone town hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1126,1125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-politics-general","tag-u-s-house-rep-jeff-hurd"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20226,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16480\/revisions\/20226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16480"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}