- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday officially denied Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell a seat on the House Intelligence Committee.
- “I appreciate your loyalty to my fellow Democrats and appreciate your efforts to reinstate two members of Congress on the House Standing Select Committee on Intelligence,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffreys that he posted on Twitter Tuesday evening.
- “But I can’t put party loyalty above national security, and I can’t just accept years of service as the only criteria for membership on this important committee. Honesty is more important.”
- McCarthy cited the Democrats’ “new standard” as to why he stripped Schiff and Swalwell, both of California, of their committee jobs after the Democratic-led House of Representatives removed GOP Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia in 2021 and Paul Gosar from Arizona. from their committees on inflammatory rhetoric and posts.
In the letter, McCarthy added that “in my opinion, the misuse of this group during the 116th and 117th Congresses has seriously undermined its core national security and oversight missions, ultimately making our country less secure,” and that he wants the commission to be one of “genuine honesty and credibility that restores the confidence of the American people.”
After the speaker again vowed to kick him off the intelligence committee earlier Tuesday, Swalwell called it “political revenge.”
“This is political revenge, this is very bad, because this committee has always been a bipartisan committee, and it takes one of the most valuable pieces of glass in the Congressional office and smashes it, and the damage will be irreparable,” Swalwell said. adding that “if a Democrat were in favor of violence against another member of Congress, I would support getting rid of them.”
Schiff told reporters that “if McCarthy thinks this will prevent me from vigorously resisting his attempts to destroy these institutions, he will see how wrong he is.”
“I think this is a terrible move on his part and shows again that McCarthy is simply catering to the most extreme elements of this conference,” he added.
Schiff will sit on the Judiciary Committee, while Swalwell told CNN he will sit on the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, the Democrat aide said.
Two Republicans in the House of Representatives publicly condemned McCarthy’s move to kick Democrats off the intelligence committee. Swing County Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska called the expulsion of committee members “corrosive,” while Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana said in a statement that she opposes the push to oust Democrats.
“I appreciate that these Republican members are against what McCarthy is doing,” Schiff later told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on AC360.
“I think it shows that there are Republicans who understand that this is very poorly thought out. It will simply harm the institution, it is unjustified,” he added. “These efforts are not bipartisan at all. Indeed, the opposition to this is bipartisan.”
McCarthy on Tuesday also announced a list of GOP members he appoints to serve on the federal government’s elected armaments subcommittee, with Ohio GOP Jim Jordan to serve as its chairman.
Republican Party representatives Dan Bishop of North Carolina and Chip Roy of Texas, who were part of McCarthy’s original opponents in the speaker’s race, also received seats in the panel. Democrats will also have the ability to nominate members.
The speaker also announced appointments to the elected subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, whose elected members include Green.
McCarthy expanded both selection committees by appointing more people to the roster than originally expected due to “overwhelming interest” from members, according to a familiar GOP source. The source added that Republicans in the House of Representatives would have to move a resolution to formally change the ratios, but don’t expect that to be an issue.