US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday reiterated that he would block Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from serving on the House committee that oversees national intelligence, saying the decision was not based on political payback, but because “integrity matters, and they have failed in that place.”
In the previous US Congress, Democrats booted Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committee assignments for incendiary commentary that they said incited potential violence against colleagues.
US House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a letter sent to McCarthy over the weekend, asked that Schiff and Swalwell be reappointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Photo: EPA-EFE
There is no “precedent or justification” for rejecting them, Jeffries said.
Unlike most committees, appointments to the intelligence panel are the prerogative of the speaker, with input from the minority leader.
McCarthy said that “this is not similar to what the Democrats did. Those members will have other committees, but the intel committee is different. The intel committee’s responsibility is the national security to America.”
“Hakeem Jeffries has 200 other people who can serve on that committee,” he added.
He sent his formal response to Jeffries in a letter he posted on Tuesday night on Twitter.
McCarthy was critical of Schiff’s actions as chairman of the panel during the first impeachment investigation of former US president Donald Trump, asserting he used his position to “lie to the American public again and again.”
The speaker and other Republicans have contended without offering evidence that Swalwell could not get a security clearance in the private sector because of a report that he was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy, with whom he cut ties in 2015 after being alerted by intelligence officials.
Schiff told colleagues in 2021 that Republican leaders in 2015, including then-House speaker John Boehner and the then-chairman of the intelligence panel, Republican representative Devin Nunes, were briefed on the situation with Swalwell and “expressed no opposition to his continued service” on the intelligence committee.
McCarthy insisted he was putting national security over partisan politics.
“We’re going to make the intel committee back to what it was supposed to be. No longer will we miss what happened in Afghanistan. No longer will we miss what’s happening in China, Russia, Iran and others. That’s what this country believes should happen,” he said.
Schiff called the decision “petty, political payback” for investigating Trump.
“If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is,” he wrote on Twitter.
Schiff is expected to join the Committee on the Judiciary, a person familiar with the matter said.
Swalwell was similarly defiant.
“He can keep me off Intel, but I’m not going away,” he wrote on Twitter.
McCarthy has also vowed to remove US Representative Ilhan Omar from the Committee on Foreign Affairs. However, preventing Omar from being seated on the foreign affairs committee after her party has chosen her will require a House floor vote.
Democrats are expected to nominate their members to that committee later this week, potentially setting up a floor fight over Omar. At least two Republicans have expressed reservations about making such a move.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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