House Speaker Kevin McCarthy repeatedly promised over the past couple of years that, when the GOP took control of the House, he would remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from their respective committees. McCarthy has followed through on that promise.
On Monday, McCarthy confirmed to the Associated Press that Omar would be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee and that Schiff and Swalwell would be kicked off the Intelligence 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 reporters Monday night. “We will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either.”
“It’s not like it’s anything new,” McCarthy added. “Remember, this is what Nancy Pelosi – this is the type of Congress she wanted to have.”
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Swalwell was reportedly scheduled to be rotated off the Intelligence Committee anyway. However, this is a devastating blow to Schiff, who frequently abused his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to investigate President Trump. Schiff repeatedly claimed to have personally seen evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election — evidence that clearly didn’t exist, since Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s extensive investigation found no such thing.
In 2021, Pelosi and the Democrats stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments over past comments she had made, and they later censured and removed Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from his committee assignments over a video he tweeted.
Republicans argued at the time that Democrats were establishing a “dangerous” precedent whereby the “majority party can punish a member of the minority party by removing their committee assignments.” In a sense, they were warned that they would “rue the day” they established this precedent. Now the Democrats’ chickens have come home to roost.
The reasons for denying these Democrats committee assignments are undeniably more legitimate than those contrived to jettison Greene and Gosar. Schiff falsely claimed to have seen intelligence that Trump colluded with Russia, and he heavily promoted the debunked Steele Dossier. Omar has a habit of making blatantly anti-Semitic statements, and Swalwell had an affair with a Chinese spy.
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