Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) vowed revenge after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) indicated he would keep Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off the House Intelligence Committee.
“Kevin McCarthy just kicked me and @RepSwalwell off the Intelligence Committee. This is petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump,” Schiff tweeted. “If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is. I will always defend our democracy.”
Kevin McCarthy just kicked me and @RepSwalwell off the Intelligence Committee.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 25, 2023
This is petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump.
If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is.
I will always defend our democracy.
Earlier in the month, McCarthy indicated to reporters that he plans to follow through on his promise to keep Schiff and Swalwell off of the Intelligence committee.
During his time as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Schiff promoted the debunked Trump-Russia collusion theory. Further, while serving as the lead impeachment manager, Schiff “famously read out a made-up call between [former president Donald] Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dramatic effect amid Democrats moving to impeach Trump,” as Breitbart News reported.
“Adam Schiff openly lied to the American public,” McCarthy told reporters at a press conference earlier this month. “He put America for four years through an impeachment that he knew was a lie at the same time we had Ukraine, at the same time we had Afghanistan collapse. Was that the role of the Intel Committee? No.”
On the other hand, Swalwell caught flak from McCarthy over his intimate sexual relationship with a Chinese spy named Fang Fang.
“Let me phrase something very direct to you: if you got the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee,” McCarthy told reporters. “He cannot get a security clearance in the private sector.”
When Republicans held the minority in the previous Congress, McCarthy consistently pledged to keep Schiff and Swalwell off the Intel Committee if the GOP regained the majority and he controlled the speakership.
“I’ll promise you this — when I’m Speaker, [Schiff] will not be on the Intel Committee anymore,” McCarthy told Fox News in June. “And you know what else, Swalwell won’t either. I don’t know if this is a high bar. But if you have relations with a Chinese spy, you shouldn’t be allowed to be on the Intel Committee.”
