Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed to remove Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee when Republicans take over control of the House of Representatives in January.
In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” McCarthy announced his intention to remove Swalwell and Schiff from their spots on the Intelligence Committee. McCarthy is likely to become the next Speaker of the House after Republicans won a narrow majority control after the November elections.
McCarthy has previously said he would pull Swalwell and Schiff from their Intelligence Committee assignments and when Bartiromo asked if he will stick with that plan, McCarthy said, “I’ll keep that promise.”
“One thing I said from the very beginning, Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector,” McCarthy claimed. “Why would we ever give him a security clearance and the secrets to America? So, I will not allow him to be on Intel.”
McCarthy then said, “You have Adam Schiff, who lied to the American public time and again – we will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either
McCarthy’s comments about Swalwell come after Axios reported in December of 2020 that a Chinese national named Fang Fang, or Christine Fang, infiltrated the inner circles of several up and coming politicians, including Swalwell.
Axios reported Fang used campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and even through romantic and sexual relationships to get close to some of her targets in the U.S. It was not clear from Axios’ reporting that Swalwell ever became romantically involved with Fang, but Republican lawmakers have continued to criticize the relationship.
McCarthy and other Republicans have also been critical of Schiff in recent years. Schiff promoted an dossier of unproven allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government.
“You look at Adam Schiff—he should not be serving on Intel when he has openly, knowingly now used a fake dossier, lied to the American public in the process,” McCarthy said in an interview with Breitbart in January.
Schiff also caught criticism from Republicans and conservatives during a 2019 impeachment hearing against Trump in the then-Democrat controlled House, when he read off a parody of a controversial phone call between then-President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
During his interview with Bartiromo, McCarthy also reiterated a vow to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee over “her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks.”
Last year, Omar compared the U.S. and Israeli governments to Hamas and the Taliban. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. The Taliban treated Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden as a guest in Afghanistan prior to the group’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. Some of Omar’s fellow Democrats condemned her remarks at the time saying “equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided.”
While McCarthy insisted he will follow through on removing Schiff, Swalwell and Omar from their key committee assignments, he cannot do so unilaterally even if he does become Speaker of the House. Instead, their removal from the committees will require a majority vote of the entire House.
