House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) retaliated against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) by banning two Democrats from serving on a House committee.
McCarthy announced Tuesday that he would refuse to refer Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, R-Calif., to the House Intelligence Committee — pure political revenge for Democrats who ousted Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R -Ariz.) from the commissions. in 2021.
one public letter McCarthy told Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.), who nominated the two to the intelligence committee, that “in order to maintain a standard worthy of the responsibilities of this committee,” he would decline to nominate the two Democrats.
Greene became McCarthy’s main ally in the far-right Republican Party. Democrats kicked her out of the committees in 2021 after it emerged she was peddling online conspiracy theories and scathing rhetoric against political opponents, particularly Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), before coming to Congress . McCarthy won some support from Greene for speaker by promising to put her back on the committee if Republicans controlled the House, a promise she kept.
McCarthy did not explain in his letter why Swalwell and Schiff should not serve on the committee, but he repeatedly argued that Swalwell could not obtain a security clearance because of a past affiliation with a Chinese spy and that Schiff at lied to the american. . people. Both charges are captious.
“This is nothing political,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “This is not like what the Democrats have done. Those members will have other committees, but the intelligence committee is different.”
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Blocking commission appointments is a clear act of political revenge. McCarthy first suggested that Republicans would November 2021 when the House voted to remove Gosar from the committees after he posted a strange cartoon video of himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.).
McCarthy can unilaterally deny seats to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence because the speaker has more control over select committees than standing committees. It also has threatened to block the rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the committeesbut that would probably require a vote in the House.
In a letter to McCarthy on Sunday, Jeffries said the removal of Republicans from the committees for threatening behavior toward colleagues should not be used as a precedent to remove Swalwell and Schiff. He described the appointment of “serial crook” George Santos (RNY) to two committees as a double standard.
McCarthy insisted Tuesday that a secret briefing he received from the FBI justified Swalwell’s removal from the intelligence committee.
“The FBI was concerned about appointing a congressman to the intelligence committee — who has the right to see things that others don’t — because of his knowledge and relationship with a Chinese spy,” McCarthy said.
What is publicly known about the allegation comes from a The story of Axios 2020 he said a Chinese spy approached elected Democrats from 2011 to 2015, including raising money for Swalwell’s re-election, and that Swalwell immediately cut off all contact with the person after the FBI notified him. The story revealed no wrongdoing by Swalwell.
McCarthy offered a list of grievances against Schiff, the former chairman of the intelligence committee, including a dubious claim that he personally knew the whistleblower who sparked the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
In a joint statement, Swalwell, Schiff and Omar said McCarthy “capitulated to the right” in the Republican Party and struck a corrupt deal “that called for political revenge against the three of us.”
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