McCarthy Tit-for-Tats With Promise to Punt Dems From Committees

In politics, “turnabout is fair play” -- always. During the time that Democrats have held the House of Representatives, Republicans feel they have been treated poorly. So, it isn’t a surprise the current House minority leader is looking for payback. In a recent New York Post article, Juliegrace Brufke wrote, “Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) confirmed Monday [Jan. 10] that he plans to remove three high-profile Democrats from their committee positions if Republicans take back the chamber this November and he wins the Speaker’s gavel the following January.” Though there is a certain bravado in McCarthy’s comments, committee chairmen are expected to lose their positions when their party is not in the majority. Nonetheless, the point is made.

In The Hill, reporter Cristina Marcos explained that “McCarthy singled out Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA), lawmakers he’d previously identified as potential targets.” From the perspective of thoughtful appointment standards, Omar has no business being on the House Foreign Affairs with her anti-Israel position and open embrace of Hamas. Moreover, her influence in international affairs is dangerously misguided. As Martin Pengelly pointed out in The Guardian, even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could not brook Omar’s open hostility to the very country that put her where she is.

A tweet by the Minnesota Democrat said essentially that the United States and Israel are morally equivalent to Hamas and the Taliban. Her words: “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.” Pelosi’s rebuke of Omar was measured but spot on. The speaker said, “Drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all.”

When it comes to Schiff and Swalwell, the fact the congressmen from California are the chairman and a member respectively of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) is a travesty of intellectual and moral standards. Schiff was the prime mover in touting the discredited Steele dossier in a failed attempt to remove former President Donald Trump from office. As McCarthy put it, “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.”

This was not the only occasion Schiff was found to have used misinformation to pursue his political ends. In its coverage of the California legislator, Liberty Nation exposed Schiff's willingness to push a false narrative:

“In Summer 2020, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Schiff said that Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence had been briefed on a scheme by Russia to offer monetary rewards for killing American troops in Afghanistan. The Democrats immediately claimed that Trump and Pence hid the information. The accusation proved false. But someone did know about it and kept it to himself: Schiff.”

LN has reported on numerous events that reveal both Schiff and Swalwell as the integrity lightweights that they are. As a member of the HPSCI, Swalwell has the unique reputation of being accused of having a Chinese communist paramour, Christine Fang, and employing her on his staff. In a Forbes article, Swalwell was called out as having “come under intense scrutiny and some sharp criticism, especially from Republicans … after it was revealed that a suspected spy for the Chinese Communist Party worked as a prominent Swalwell fundraiser for years – to the point, she was able to influence a job hire in this Congressional office.” Keep in mind that these two Democrat members of Congress -- Schiff and Swalwell -- are allowed to access the highest level of national security secrets.

Based on their behavior in positions of responsibility, it is inconceivable that these politicians have an opportunity to peruse documents classified above “interesting.” If McCarthy is elected speaker of the House in January 2023, it appears he will clean house (pun definitely intended) of those Democrats in sensitive committee positions who he believes have shown themselves unworthy of accountability. It looks like he's ready to give back to the Democrats as good as they gave Republicans. It’s only fair, right?

 The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.

~  Read more from Dave Patterson.