House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has vowed to remove Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of California, and Ilham Omar of Minnesota from committee assignments if Republicans win back the chamber in the upcoming midterm elections. McCarthy’s threat is in retaliation after GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona were removed from their committees for inciting violence with inflammatory rhetoric and posts.
Citing a “new standard” that Democrats had created last year by removing Greene and Gosar, McCarthy told Breitbart in an interview, according to CNN.
Greene was stripped of her committee assignments last February over incendiary and violent statements she made after she was sworn in. Meanwhile, Gosar was censured and removed from his committee seats for posting a photoshopped anime video to his Twitter and Instagram accounts showing him appearing to kill Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and attacking President Joe Biden with swords. He eventually took the post down but retweeted a tweet that contained the video hours after being disciplined by the House.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who could be on committee. Never in the history have you had the majority tell the minority who could be on committee,” McCarthy said in the interview.
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In response, Swalwell told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night that McCarthy’s vow was “purely for retaliation.”
“He’s targeting me and he’s targeting Schiff and he’s targeting Ms. Omar because we’re effective. Not for any other reason,” Swalwell said on “Anderson Cooper 360.” “This is the Trumpization of politics. … He’s doing it purely for retaliation purposes and he’s not even offering a fig leaf as to why he’s doing it.”
House Speaker Pelosi responded by saying she is not concerned that Republicans plan to retaliate should the GOP win back the House. “No, we would not walk away from our responsibilities for fear of something they may do in the future,” the California Democrat said, according to CNN.
