OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to become Speaker when Republicans take control of the House in January, is vowing to remove California Democrat Adam Schiff from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
“Another change you’re going to get, Adam Schiff will no longer be on the Intel Committee when I become speaker. I promised that more than two years ago,” McCarthy said during an interview on Fox News.
“[Democrats] also used the intel community as well to lie to the American public. Should those people keep their clearances? Should those people still be allowed to have information? If they’re going to be political individuals, then, no, they should not. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we need to investigate going forward,” he added.
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Late last month, McCarthy said that if elected Speaker, he will also remove Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar from congressional committees for past conduct.
During an interview on Fox News with host Maria Bartiromo, McCarthy spoke about Republicans winning back control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections. McCarthy, who appears poised to be nominated as the speaker, said he will honor his promise to boot the three controversial Democrats.
“Congressman, let me ask you about your decisions should you become the speaker of the House in January. What are you going to do in terms of these Democrats that you have on such important committees? You’ve talked in the past about removing I’ll hand to or mar, about Ilhan Omar, you’ve talked about removing Adam Schiff, about Eric Swalwell. Will you deliver?” Bartiromo asked McCarthy.
“Yes, I will. I’ll keep that promise. And one thing I’ve said from the very beginning, Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector. Why would we ever give him a security clearance in the secrets of America? So I will not allow him to be on Intel. You have Adam Schiff who had lied to the American public time and again. We will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either. Look, Congresswoman Omar, her anti-Semitic comments that have gone forward, we’re not going to allow her to be on Foreign Affairs. But we’re also going to stand up to what’s happening not just in the halls of Congress, but what’s happening to our higher education institutions, the anti-Semitism that’s going on on these campuses and others. We’ll investigate that as well and stop this to make sure that America does have the freedoms that we said we would keep and we would stand up to it as we move forward,” McCarthy declared.
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McCarthy said he planned to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over several past “antisemitic” remarks.
“We watch antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow In the halls of Congress,” he told the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
“I promised you last year that as Speaker, she will no longer be on Foreign Affairs, and I’m keeping that promise,” he said as the audience cheered.
McCarthy tweeted: “The Speaker does not have the power to remove a member from a standing committee. Foreign Affairs is a standing committee. Each party has their own rules and procedures for assigning committee roles. Only a majority vote by the entire house could remove Rep. Omar.”
Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks.
I'm keeping that promise. pic.twitter.com/04blBx3neD
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 19, 2022
McCarthy is the top candidate for the Speakership, but he can’t afford to lose many votes due to the party’s slim majority.
Before joining Congress, Omar claimed in a tweet that Israel had “hypnotized the world.” After she was elected, she submitted a resolution to the House that compared boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.
For his part, McCarthy also condemned Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) last year after she said, “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.” Her remarks, according to McCarthy were viewed as minimizing the Holocaust.
At the time, Democrats, who were in the majority, voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments. McCarthy said he would reinstate Greene to those assignments, and she has vowed to support him for Speaker.
In April, Omar was blasted for complaining about a group of Christians breaking into song on a commercial flight.
