McCarthy Boots Schiff And Swalwell Out Their Committees!

What about George Santos? The Republicans are the party of integrity.

Listening to the bullshit of Sean "Softball" Hannity can be hazardous to Republicans.

Two Democratic lawmakers were removed from sub committees. The Republican House Speaker takes jab at them and "Democrat" leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). 

Using Democrat instead of Democratic is a pejorative. 

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) have an open feud with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). 

On Tuesday, McCarthy has formally booted them from serving on the House Intelligence Committee, escalating the two-year tit-for-tat battle between the parties over who is qualified for certain positions on Capitol Hill. 

Minority Leader Jeffries had written to McCarthy on Saturday asking that both Schiff and Swalwell be seated on the Intel panel, where membership assignments come solely at the discretion of the Speaker. 

But McCarthy said Schiff’s and Swalwell’s previous actions make them unfit to serve on a panel with jurisdiction over and access to sensitive issues of national security.

“In order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee,” he wrote in a letter to Jeffries on Tuesday.

The move was no surprise. 

Democratic lawmakers never called for violence or denied an election but they are booted off their committees.

Republicans have been up in arms over the issue since 2021, when Democrats staged votes to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committees following revelations that they had promoted violence against some of their Democratic colleagues. The eviction votes came after McCarthy declined to punish either lawmaker internally within the GOP conference, which is typically where such disciplinary actions are meted out.

Still, McCarthy on Tuesday denied that his decision regarding Schiff and Swalwell was retribution for Greene and Gosar.

“This is not not anything political. This is not similar to what the Democrats did,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday evening just outside his office in the Capitol.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) faces a different situation. The House must vote on formal removal from the Foreign Affairs Committee. While McCarthy has the unilateral authority to block appointments to the Intelligence Committee, the full House must ratify committee membership for the Foreign Affairs panel — meaning a majority of the chamber will have to vote to block the congresswoman from serving.

Asked on Tuesday how confident he is that there will be enough support to block Omar from the Foreign Affairs panel, McCarthy told reporters that “it would be odd to me that members would not support that based upon her comments against Israel.”

Omar, a critic of the U.S.-Israeli alliance is often scapegoated. They make baseless claims that she supports terrorists.

Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) are the only Muslims serving in Congress. 

Omar is often a target of death threats, baseless conspiracy theories and false accusations of anti-semitism.

The Speaker of the House has not responded to three mass shootings in his state. 

The shootings in Oakland, Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park were deadly. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the mass shootings and slammed McCarthy for not even once addressing them or visiting the victims. 

Mind you it is a photo op and it won't convince McCarthy to change his stance on firearms but given three mass shootings in a span of 48 hours, you would think he would say something about it.