On Monday night, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy confirmed that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) will be removed from the House Intelligence Committee and the House will vote on the removal of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In February, McCarthy first told the Daily Caller that, if elected speaker, he intends to strip Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee as well as Swalwell and Schiff from the Intelligence Committee. He reiterated this promise following his win for the GOP nomination for speaker in November.
On Monday, McCarthy confirmed to the Associated Press (AP) that he would be moving forward with that decision, saying both Swalwell and Schiff should not have seats on the committee.
McCarthy has said Swalwell’s reported relationship with a Chinese spy as well as Schiff’s defense of the largely-debunked Steele dossier are some of the reasons they should be removed from the committee. McCarthy has also previously cited Omar’s numerous instances of antisemitism as the reason she should be removed from the Foreign Affairs committee.
“Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government security clearance. Schiff has lied to the American public,” McCarthy told the AP.
In 2021, Democrats stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) of their committee assignments, beginning a yearlong campaign in which McCarthy promised that, should Republicans reclaim the House in the midterms, he intended to do the same to “at least three” Democrats.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committees,” McCarthy said at the time. “Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on a committee. But this new standard which these Democrats have voted for — if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there is no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security. He will not be serving there.”
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