Two prominent Democrats were officially removed from the House Intelligence Committee by Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House from California.
On Tuesday, McCarthy responded to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) with a letter. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) were also on Jeffries’ list of potential appointees to the panel with access to classified information.
Who serves on such an important committee should be determined only by seniority; I cannot put partisanship before national security. “Integrity is more essential,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy stated, “I am officially rejecting the nominations of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee to keep a standard appropriate of this committee’s responsibilities.”
There was a meeting between McCarthy and Jeffries, and then word of the letter leaked. Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, he told the reporters, would be welcome to join the efforts of other committees.
In his role as speaker, McCarthy has the authority to exclude whomever he wants from sitting on the House Intelligence Committee. Before he ever became Speaker, McCarthy had pledged to remove longtime members of the House of Representatives, Reps. Schiff and Swalwell. McCarthy has proposed holding a vote on the House floor to remove Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her position on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
A minority of Republicans have made it a point to eliminate Democratic committee membership. Republican Indiana Representative Victoria Spartz, who voted “present” on many of this month’s 15 elections for speaker, made a statement in which she claimed she disapproved of the “charade” being played out.
McCarthy believes that Schiff, the committee’s chair for the past four years, has a history of lying, most notably about the investigations against the Trump administration. The speaker’s close association with a man formerly suspected of being a Chinese spy caused him to express fear for the country’s security.
As a result of the investigation into Trump, this is political payback, and it is petty. If he thinks he can stop me with this, he will find out he is mistaken. On Tuesday night, Schiff tweeted, “I will always preserve our democracy.”
In his defense of himself since the beginning of the Chinese espionage issue, Swalwell has pointed to remarks made by FBI officials assuring the public that he was participating in any probe and was not suspected of wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, he tweeted that the Washington Post’s fact checker had given the claim that led to the rejection of four “Pinocchios.” Speaker [John] Boehner and [Paul] Ryan of the Gang of 8 appointed me to Intel, so I had access to the same material McCarthy was distorting. Even if he succeeds in preventing me from utilizing Intel, I have no intention of leaving.
After Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) resigned last month, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NM) took over as the new leader of the House Democrats. Over the weekend, Rep. Jeffries wrote to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to argue that Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were “eminently qualified” to remain on the committee.
He said that in recent years, Republican lawmakers had seen a decline in support, leading to the removal of several of their members from critical committees. He also referenced New York Republican Congressman George Santos, whom he characterized as a “serial fraudster,” to reinforce his argument. Republicans have tried getting Santos to resign, but he has been handed committee assignments. Santos has admitted to lying about his employment history and personal life.
According to Jeffries, the double standard threatens the much-needed spirit of bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
As it investigated Trump’s possible ties to Russia and Ukraine during the 2016 election, the once-neutral House Intelligence Committee became a target for partisan assaults throughout the Trump presidency. McCarthy plans to change the subject away from politics, he says.
In his letter from Tuesday, McCarthy said, “I believe that the misuses of this panel over the 116th and 117th Congresses undermined its essential national security and oversight duties, eventually leaving our nation less safe.” As we begin a new Congress, I want to regain the confidence of the American people by fulfilling my pledge to rebuild the Intelligence Committee’s reputation for honesty and credibility.
McCarthy’s Republican appointees to the Intelligence Committee for the current Congress session have been made public. Chairmanship duties will go to Representative Mike Turner (R-OH). Precisely who the Democratic Party would appoint to the committee’s open seats was still unknown.