The White House defends Omar, Schiff and Swalwell as Kevin McCarthy tries to remove them from committees

The White House sided with three Democratic lawmakers Wednesday who House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to strip of valuable committee assignments.

On Tuesday, McCarthy decided that Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were no longer welcome on the House Intel Committee, and because it’s a select, non-permanent panel, he has final say on its membership.

He also threatened a House vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over comments she previously made about Israel.

President Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked about McCarthy’s letter that kicked Schiff and Swalwell out of the intelligence committee at their regular press briefing, saying both they and Omar provide a ” valuable experience” to their respective panel assignments.

She said the three “bring a lot to the table when it comes to foreign policy and national security.”

“When it comes to that committee, it should not be politicized,” Jean-Pierre said.

“It should be independent, and again, those members of Congress bring a lot of experience to that committee.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Schiff, Omar and Swalwell held a joint press event to discuss their drama on Capitol Hill. They claimed McCarthy was doing Donald Trump’s bidding by stripping them of his assignments.

Schiff told the press conference: “The cardinal sin appears to be that I led the prosecution of your master at Mar-a-Lago, for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Ukraine, a nation that even then was at war.” . with Russia, in order to extort that country to help Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Swalwell complained that McCarthy is using his power as a speaker to “go after his political opponents and drive them off the field.” “In my case, it’s purely political revenge,” Swalwell added.

In a heated exchange with a reporter Tuesday night, McCarthy pointed to Schiff’s role in Russiagate during the Trump years and said the California Democrat “lied to the American public” about the legitimacy of Hunter Biden’s laptop. while serving as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee on the run. until the 2020 presidential election.

“And if you want to talk about Swalwell, let’s talk about Swalwell,” McCarthy continued. ‘Because you haven’t had the report that I have.’

McCarthy then brought up an FBI briefing he had with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as Schiff, about Swalwell’s entanglements with an alleged Chinese spy named Fang Fang.

“As he stated, I attended that briefing and when Kevin McCarthy misrepresents the information and does that harm to the American people, it’s shameful,” Schiff said. “This is a patently unfair smear on Mr. McCarthy’s part,” the California Democrat said.

Swalwell said that all he did was two things: “I helped them time and time again and nothing wrong was ever suspected.”

Omar noted that he apologized for making anti-Semitic comments early in his tenure in Congress.

I have addressed it, I have apologized. Two and a half terms have passed,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “I think it’s really important in all of our cases to remember that it’s not the allegations that McCarthy is making against us that are pushing to remove us from these committees.”

‘It’s about revenge. It’s about appeasing the former president,’ he added.

He argued that “the three of us have been a thorn in the back of the disgraced previous president.”

“Republicans have been fighting for our seats and they obviously know how effective we have been in defending the Constitution, defending our democracy and standing up to extremists,” he said.

McCarthy was able to unilaterally remove Schiff and Swalwell from the Intelligence Committee, but Omar’s fate will be in the hands of the full House.

It’s unclear if McCarthy has the votes.

Moderate Republican Reps. Victoria Spartz and Nancy Mace have said they oppose the measure.

McCarthy is also missing a vote as Rep. Greg Steube is recovering from serious injuries after falling down a ladder at his Florida home.

The new House Republican majority removed the option for members to vote by proxy.

McCarthy was asked Tuesday night how he could kick Schiff and Swalwell off their committees, but allow the serial liar and Republican Rep. George Santos to be assigned to two committees: the Small Business Committee and the Science Committee, Space and Technology.

I will be very clear with you. The Intel Committee is different. You know why? Because what happens in the Intel Committee, you don’t know,” McCarthy told PBS NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins.

Schiff reacted by saying, ‘hypocrisy just grabs you by the throat’.

“This is a Republican speaker who is sitting a human fraud, George Santos, in the committees, a serial manufacturer over every part of his existence,” Schiff said.

In a tense back-and-forth with Desjardins at a news conference Tuesday, McCarthy also noted that Schiff and Swalwell might serve on other committees, but not the nation’s secret keepers.

“But you know what, those voters chose Schiff, even though he lied, those voters chose Swalwell, even though he also lied to the American public,” McCarthy reasoned. ‘So you know what? I also respect their constituents and they will serve on committees. But they won’t serve in a place that has national security ramifications because integrity matters to me.’

‘I won’t be like the Democrats and play politics with them. Where they got the Republicans out of the committees and all the committees,” McCarthy also said.

During the last Congress, Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar were stripped of all their committee assignments after they shared posts on social media threatening violence against Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy. Pelosi, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

They were removed from committees by a floor vote.