Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has served as House minority leader in this 117th Congress, is expected by most observers to become Speaker McCarthy in January, now that Republicans have secured a House majority for the 118th. Even though he may not have the votes to get there, he is already making plans for changes to a couple of the most important House committees his party will soon control. Three big-name Democrats are on the chopping block as the presumed GOP leader vows to remove them from their committee positions.
Kevin McCarthy is Checking His List
Speaking with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Nov. 20, McCarthy said he plans to kick Democrat Reps. Adam Schiff (NY) and Eric Swalwell (CA) off the House Intelligence Committee. He also wants Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) gone from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Explaining his reasons, the California Republican said: “Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector. Why would we ever give him a security clearance and the secrets to America? So, I will not allow him to be on Intel.” In 2014, Swalwell had several interactions with a Chinese national, Christine Fang, who fled the US just as the FBI focused on her, believing she had been working for China’s Ministry of State Security, which is, effectively, a spy agency. Fang operated as a fundraising bundler for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign and, according to Fox News, also helped to place an intern within the Democrat’s office.
Rep. Schiff became known as one of former President Donald Trump’s main antagonists during the special counsel investigation into the now-debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. Schiff repeatedly claimed he had evidence that Trump had indeed colluded with the Russian government. On one occasion, he described what he had seen as “more than circumstantial.” However, the congressman never did disclose this evidence.
Considering how eager the left-leaning media would have been to lay this information out for the American people, it is reasonable to assume that Schiff never had the goods on Trump, as he asserted. “You had Adam Schiff, who had lied to the American public time and again,” McCarthy said. “We will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either.”
The aspiring House speaker also brought up Rep. Omar’s antisemitic comments as justification for removing her from foreign affairs. Omar is an outspoken critic of Israel. In 2021, several Jewish Democrats demanded Omar “clarify her words” after she tweeted, “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” Omar lashed out at the lawmakers, calling them “shameful” and accusing them of employing “Islamophobic tropes.” In 2012, the congresswoman tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” That tweet was soon deleted from the social media platform. Those are just two examples, but Omar has frequently verbally attacked Israel while refusing to condemn acts of Islamist terrorism – instead, defending them as “a reaction to a situation.”
Most infamously, in 2019, while referencing the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, Omar summed up the atrocity as “some people did something.”
The Speakership: Not a Sure Thing
Kevin McCarthy (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Kevin McCarthy is not yet assured of the speaker’s gavel, though. As things currently stand, the Republican Party has 218 seats in the new Congress, while Democrats have 212. Five House races contested in the 2022 midterm elections are still to be decided. When the results are in, the GOP is expected to command a majority by a margin of five seats, though some projections give Republicans a six-seat cushion. A candidate for speaker requires a simple majority, but at least three GOP representatives publicly said they would not vote for McCarthy. They are Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the former leader of the House Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Matt Rosendale (R-MT).
Should McCarthy get his win and follow through on his pledge regarding Swalwell, Schiff, and Omar, most conservatives will see it as at least one step in the right direction; karma, one might even say, for years of bad behavior and dishonesty. But in the grand scheme of things, the removal from committees of these Democrats means little beyond providing a measure of grim satisfaction. The question most Republican voters have is this: Does Kevin McCarthy intend to take the party forward – or backward?
