House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California points to the newly-installed sign as he arrives at his office after he was sworn in as speaker of the 118th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 7, 2023.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy rejected two democrats’ bids to be on the intelligence committee.
McCarthy said that Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were not fit to serve on the committee.
The two democrats served on it from 2015 to 2019 and headed up impeachment efforts against Trump.
House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy announced that two prominent democrats would not be re-assigned with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in a bold partisan articulation of his new term.
McCarthy published a letter in response to House Minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday, arguing that the two lawmakers had “severely undermined its primary national security and oversight missions — ultimately leaving our nation less safe.”
Jeffries had rallied McCarthy on Monday to allow the two to serve on the committee, pointing out the “double standard” of allowing serial liar Rep. George Santos to gain committee assignments.
McCarthy, who was elected House majority speaker after a 15th grinding vote, said in his letter that he “cannot simply recognize years of service as the sole criteria for membership,” referring to Reps. Schiff and Swalwell’s previous terms on the committee from 2015 to 2019.
Both Schiff and Swalwell featured heavily in the impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Previously, McCarthy had argued that because of Swalwell’s past association with a Chinese spy, he should not serve on the committee. He claimed that Schiff “lied to the American public” about his knowledge of the whistleblower at the center of the first impeachment proceedings. McCarthy has claimed the move is not retaliatory