OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has kept a pledge he made ahead of the November elections to boot a pair of Democratic lawmakers from their posts on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, citing past breaches of security and public trust.
The move comes after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committee assignments in the last Congress. At the time, according to the Daily Mail, Republicans warned that Democrats would rue the day they removed Greene and Gosar.
McCarthy also wants to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee over remarks she has made in past disparaging Israel. Omar, who is Muslim, has been frequently accused of being anti-Semitic.
Omar’s removal, however, must be approved by the full house, which Republicans control by a narrow nine-seat margin.
“It’s not like it’s anything new,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News. “Remember, this is what Nancy Pelosi – this is the type of Congress she wanted to have.
“Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector,” he said, reflective of the lawmaker’s past romantic involvement with a noted Chinese spy. “I’m not going to give him a government security clearance.”
Turning to Schiff, McCarthy said he “has lied too many times to the American public. He should not be on Intel.”
“Swalwell has faced questions over his ties to a Chinese spy named Fang Fang,” the Daily Mail reported. “The woman helped Swalwell raise money for his 2014 campaign – and while the California Democrat said he cut all ties to the alleged spy, it was shown that he remained friends with her on Facebook long after [an] FBI briefing on her ties to China.”
McCarthy spoke about wanting to remove Omar from her committee in November.
“We watch antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow In the halls of Congress,” he told the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
“I promised you last year that as Speaker, she will no longer be on Foreign Affairs, and I’m keeping that promise,” he said as the audience cheered, Fox News reported.
A clip of McCarthy making his pledge was posted to Twitter. A user update accompanying the video clip noted: “The Speaker does not have the power to remove a member from a standing committee. Foreign Affairs is a standing committee. Each party has their own rules and procedures for assigning committee roles. Only a majority vote by the entire house could remove Rep. Omar.”
Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks.
I'm keeping that promise. pic.twitter.com/04blBx3neD
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) November 19, 2022
Fox News added:
Since being elected to Congress in 2018, Omar has made several controversial comments widely deemed to perpetuate antisemitic tropes, including saying it was “all about the Benjamins” for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and tweeting, “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,” which was seen as equating Israel and the U.S. to the Taliban.
Before joining Congress, Omar claimed in a tweet that Israel had “hypnotized the world.” After she was elected, she submitted a resolution to the House that compared boycotting Israel to boycotting the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany.
For his part, McCarthy also condemned Greene last year after she said, “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.” Her remarks, according to McCarthy, were viewed as minimizing the Holocaust.
At the time, Democrats, who were in the majority, voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments. McCarthy said he would reinstate Greene to those assignments, and she vowed to support him for Speaker.
In April, Omar was blasted for complaining about a group of Christians breaking into song on a commercial flight.
Some details about the flight remain unknown, such as whether it was a charter flight, when the flight actually occurred, and the travel itinerary. It was also unclear how old the video is.
“I think my family and I should have a prayer session next time I am on a plane,” Omar wrote in a Twitter post containing the video clip to her 3 million followers on the platform. “How do you think it will end?”
I think my family and I should have a prayer session next time I am on a plane. How do you think it will end? pic.twitter.com/5696Erwsl5
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 17, 2022
