Speaker Kevin McCarthy said again on Tuesday that he will not let Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California serve on the House committee that oversees national intelligence. He said this was not a political move but because “integrity matters and they have failed in that place.”
In the last Congress, Democrats kicked Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona off their committees for making controversial comments that Democrats said could lead to violence against other members of Congress.
In a letter sent to McCarthy over the weekend, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries asked that Schiff and Swalwell be put back on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. This is a prestigious committee that has access to sensitive, classified information.
Jeffries said there is no “precedent or justification” to turn them down. Unlike most committees, the speaker is in charge of putting people on the Intelligence panel, with help from the minority leader.
McCarthy said, “this is not similar to what the Democrats did. Those members will have other committees, but the Intel Committee is different. The Intel committee’s responsibility is the national security of America.”
“Hakeem Jeffries has 200 other people who can serve on that committee,” he said. He gave Jeffries his official answer in a letter he sent to Jeffries and then posted on Twitter Tuesday night.
McCarthy didn’t like what Schiff did as chairman of the panel during the first investigation into whether President Trump should be removed from office. He said that Schiff used his position to “lie to the American public again and again.”
He also noted that Swalwell couldn’t get a security clearance in the private sector, so “we’re not going to provide him with the secrets to America.” McCarthy tried to get Swalwell kicked off the Intelligence panel in March 2021 because he had talked to a person who was thought to be a Chinese spy.
The Democratic-controlled House voted down his resolution against Swalwell. It said that Christine Fang, suspected of being a spy, had contact with Swalwell’s campaign when he first ran for Congress in 2012 and helped raise money for his 2014 campaign.
In 2015, federal investigators told Swalwell about their concerns and told Congress about Fang. Swalwell says that was when he stopped talking to Fang.
Schiff told his colleagues in 2021 that in 2015, Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner and Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who was in charge of the intelligence panel at the time, were told about the situation with Swalwell and “expressed no opposition to his continued service” to him staying on the committee.
I have rejected the appointments of Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell for the House Intelligence Committee.
I am committed to returning the @HouseIntel Committee to one of genuine honesty and credibility that regains the trust of the American people. pic.twitter.com/ePxlbanxta
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) January 25, 2023
McCarthy insisted that national security was more important to him than partisan politics. “We’re going to make the Intel Committee back to what it was supposed to be. No longer will we miss what happened in Afghanistan.
No longer will we miss what’s happening in China, Russia, Iran, and others. That’s what this country believes should happen,” McCarthy said. McCarthy has also said that Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, will be kicked off the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In a joint statement, the three Democrats who could be removed from committees said, “it’s disappointing but not surprising that Kevin McCarthy has capitulated to the right wing of his caucus, undermining the integrity of the Congress and harming our national security in the process.”
They said that McCarthy’s deal with GOP hardliners to become speaker “required political vengeance against the three of us.” which is why they were fired. If you find this interesting, please forward it to your friends. Visit Lighthousejournal.org for the most up-to-date and recent celebrity news.
For almost 4 years, Jason Martin has been a freelance writer for newspapers, journals, blogs, books, and online material. He covers the most recent news as well as many other topics.