House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has hinted for months that he may seek retaliation against Democrats after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) used her authority to remove Republican lawmakers from their committee assignments.
Now, McCarthy, who is set to become Speaker following the midterm elections later this year if Republicans win back the House, has named names.
During an interview with Breitbart, the California Republican said that such a move would be in response to Democrats voting to remove two Republicans — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) — off their committees.
McCarthy named Democrat Reps. Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, and Eric Swalwell.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committees,” McCarthy said. “Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on the committee. But this new standard which these Democrats have voted for—if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there is no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security. He will not be serving there.”
“Ilhan Omar should not be serving on Foreign Affairs,” McCarthy said. “This is a new level of what the Democrats have done.”
McCarthy also said Schiff, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, would be removed from the committee.
“You look at Adam Schiff — he should not be serving on Intel when he has openly, knowingly now used a fake dossier, lied to the American public in the process and doesn’t have any ill will [and] says he wants to continue to do it,” McCarthy said.
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“We’re going to reshape—think about what happened in Afghanistan. Why did Afghanistan collapse so fast? Was the Intel Committee under Adam Schiff focused on impeachment and not on the safety of America? Why are people coming across the border that are on a terrorist watch list? What are they doing about it?” he continued.
“Their own members on that committee say it’s not happening when it’s true. We need to have an Intel Committee that looks at what’s happening around the world and keeps America safe,” McCarthy added.
“It should do exactly what it was created [to do]—overseeing our agencies and others. We’re going to hold people to a higher standard in the process if they want to be on the Intel Committee and the training to be a part of it. Take the politics out of it,” he said.