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| Gaveling was the cost of caving in. |
You notice that most of the Republican leaders are white and male. Not once have the Republican Party ever prove to people of color they are willing to accept change.
Yet we have four Black Republican House members, one gay Republican House member (who lied about everything to win) and 14 Hispanic members (including the liar).
While Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is giving a committee despite lying about his past, a Somali-American lawmaker who has politically charged rhetoric is stripped. This lawmaker does not encourage violence. She expresses dire concern that our country's deep resentment toward different religions and race are still prevalent.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made concessions to the House Freedom Caucus to earn the gavel. His actions included the ousting of political opponents to the Republicans.
Two California Democrats and one Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota were booted from their key committee chairs as an act of revenge for removing Rep. Marjorie Tayl9r Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ). These two openly call for violence against political opponents and support white nationalists views.
In those cases, the Democratic majority and some Republicans in the House voted to remove Greene and Gosar over their inflammatory conduct, including Greene spreading conspiracy theories -- some of which she has since renounced -- and Gosar sharing an animated social media video depicting violence against President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). (Gosar said amid the controversy, "I do not espouse violence.")
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) were from the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was removed from House Foreign Affairs Committee.
McCarthy has accused Schiff of lying to the public during references to a disputed dossier that claimed to outline links between Washed Up 45's 2016 campaign and Russia.
McCarthy has also called Swalwell a "national security threat" for Swalwell's reported run-ins with an alleged Chinese spy, stating there's no way he should be allowed to serve on the committee.
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| Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) engages conversation with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). |
Omar blasted the decision as a shameless cave to bigots and extremists.
"McCarthy's effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred -- including threatening to strip me from my committee -- does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with. It does nothing to address inflation, healthcare, or solve the climate crisis," she said in a statement in November.
"What it does is gin up fear and hate against Somali-Americans and anyone who shares my identity, and further divide us along racial and ethnic lines," she said.
Omar is a staunch critic of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Omar strongly opposes Israeli funding and the U.S. and their one sided support for Israeli interests over those living in the dwindling Palestinian regions. Benjamin Netanyahu vows to keep pushing for settlements despite warnings that it will inflame the Arab region. Republicans and some Democrats construde her remarks as anti-semitic and anti-American.
Most Republicans and some Democrats are Islamophobic.
She along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) are practicing Sunni Muslims.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was asked during a press conference on Tuesday what the process would be for stripping Democratic members of their assignments and said no one had yet been assigned to committees. But he suggested removals were a new standard first set by Democrats.
"As we see what comes out, the Democrats set a precedent that we urged them strongly not to go down last Congress," Scalise said.
"They decided that they were going to break the precedent that had been in place for over 200 years and remove members of the opposing party that our party selected to be on committees," he continued. "And so that was a practice they set and so, obviously, we're going to be looking very closely at who they appoint. They haven't appointed anybody yet to committees, but we're gonna see if they do."
After Republicans won back the House in November, McCarthy reiterated to Fox News that he planned to keep the three Democrats from their committee posts.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the chair of the House Democratic caucus, on Tuesday declined to elaborate on next steps should Schiff and Swalwell be blocked or booted by Republicans from the intelligence panel.
"We will send the names of the individuals who this caucus supports and are qualified to serve on committees," Aguilar told reporters. "What the speaker does beyond that is something that we will handle ... but it isn't anything we're going to get in today."
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| Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). |
Schiff previously discussed the potential removal of his committee assignment during a November interview with ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
"I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do," Schiff said of McCarthy. "He is a very weak leader of his conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator. And if that lowest common denominator wants to remove people from committees, that's what they'll do."
Swalwell has not been accused of wrongdoing and he has said he stopped contact with the woman after federal authorities briefed him, according to the Associated Press.
Schiff served as the lead impeachment manager in Trump's first Senate trial, and both he and Swalwell were managers for Trump's second impeachment trial.
McCarthy, as speaker, has the power to keep Schiff and Swalwell off the intelligence panel, but for any other committee -- like Omar on foreign affairs -- the full House would need to vote by simple majority to block her.
Separately, McCarthy's criticized Omar over what he described as her "repeated antisemitic and anti-American remarks." Omar has previously apologized for some of her statements, including about lobbyists on behalf of Israel's government.
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