(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- On Monday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries submitted Representatives Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff of California to serve on the Intelligence Committee.
Those nominations were quickly shot down by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, when he formally removed both of them from the very powerful committee.
The move was not surprisingly met with immediate backlash from Democrats and some people within the Republican Party as well. They claim that it’s retaliation for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed a few Republican members of the House from their committee assignments under the last Congress.
In 2021, Republican Representatives Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia were both removed from the committees they were serving on for various threatening comments they made.
At the time, McCarthy — who was minority leader in the House — said Democrats would pay for that once the GOP took over control of the House. On Tuesday, he proved that those words were a promise and not a threat.
Over the weekend, Jeffries wrote a letter that pressed for both Swalwell and Schiff to keep their seats on the Intelligence Committee. Schiff was actually the top-ranking Democrat on the panel.
In response, McCarthy wrote a letter of his own that read:
“I appreciate the loyalty you have to your Democrat colleagues. … But, I cannot put partisan loyalty ahead of national security.
“As such … I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee.”
Speaking on Tuesday at a press conference, McCarthy said he was making the moves because Schiff promoted the Steele dossier and Swalwell has an association with a spy from China.
McCarthy plans to press ahead with efforts to remove other Democrats from key committees. He has plans to hold a floor vote that would kick Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar off of the Foreign Affairs Committee. It’s very likely that that vote will face opposition from some members of the GOP, though.
In fact, Republican Representatives Victoria Spartz from Indiana and Nancy Mace from South Carolina both have said they would be opposed to removing Democrats from their committee assignments.
This week, Swalwell, Omar and Schiff issued a joint statement that said McCarthy “capitulated to the right wing of his caucus [and] struck a corrupt bargain in his desperate, and nearly failed, attempt to win” the gavel and the Speakership.
The statement continued:
“Despite these efforts, McCarthy won’t be successful. We will continue to speak out against extremism and doggedly defend our democracy.”
Also on Tuesday, the steering committee of House Democrats voted to recommend that Schiff serve on the House Judiciary Committee, an aide who was familiar with that vote told Axios this week.
The aide said of Schiff:
“He is entitled to return to a prior committee assignment. He previously served on Judiciary. [Steering] voted by unanimous consent to seat him tonight on Judiciary.”
