House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says he would block Reps. Ilhan Omar, Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and other Democratic lawmakers from serving on committees should Republicans win the House in the midterm elections.
"The Democrats have created a new thing where they're picking and choosing who can be on committees," McCarthy told Breitbart in an interview published Monday.
"Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on committee. But this new standard which these Democrats have voted for — if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there is no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security. He will not be serving there."
A 2020 Axios report said a suspected Chinese intelligence operative cultivated ties with Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, as part of a political intelligence operation run by China's main civilian spy agency.
Democrats last year stripped Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of their committee assignments over threats against Democrats.
Gosar lost seats on the Oversight and Reform Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, while Greene was removed from the Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee.
When asked whether he would use the standard Democrats have created by stripping Gosar and Taylor Greene of their roles to remove Swalwell from two committees, McCarthy replied, "Yes."
He also said Omar "should not be serving on Foreign Affairs" and Schiff "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."
"We're going to reshape," he added. "Think about what happened in Afghanistan. Why did Afghanistan collapse so fast? Was the Intel Committee under Adam Schiff focused on impeachment and not on the safety of America? Why are people coming across the border that are on a terrorist watch list? What are they doing about it? Their own members on that committee say it's not happening when it's true.
"We need to have an Intel Committee that looks at what's happening around the world and keeps America safe. It should do exactly what it was created [to do] — oversee of our agencies and others. We're going to hold people to a higher standard in the process, if they want to be on the Intel Committee and the training to be a part of it. Take the politics out of it."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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