WASHINGTON —Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday blocked two Democrats from seats on the House Intelligence Committee and filled out the GOP rosters of newly created select committees charged with investigating the politicization of the government and the origins of the Covid pandemic.
McCarthy made good on his promise to block former House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell — both California Democrats — from serving on that panel.
In a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, McCarthy said that while he appreciated the “loyalty” the Democratic leader showed to his colleagues, he could not put “partisan loyalty ahead of national security.”
“Hakeem Jeffries has 200 other people who can who can serve on that committee,” McCarthy told reporters earlier Tuesday, noting that as speaker he has the authority to reject nominees for special panels like the Intelligence Committee.
In addition to keeping Schiff and Swalwell off the Intelligence Committee, McCarthy previously said he intended to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In a joint statement Tuesday, the three Democrats said, “It’s disappointing but not surprising that Kevin McCarthy has capitulated to the right wing of his caucus, undermining the integrity of the Congress, and harming our national security in the process.”
The group accused McCarthy of striking “a corrupt bargain in his desperate, and nearly failed, attempt to win the Speakership, a bargain that required political vengeance against the three of us,” while vowing to continue speaking out on extremism while making efforts to “doggedly defend our democracy.”
McCarthy on Tuesday also named the GOP members of two committees formed by Republicans after they took control of the House.
The “Weaponization of the Federal Government’’ committee, which will probe Republican allegations that the Justice Department, FBI and other law enforcement agencies are being weaponized to investigate conservatives like former President Donald Trump, will include Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and and Dan Bishop of North Carolina — two of the 21 conservative holdouts who initially blocked McCarthy during the five-day battle over the speaker’s gavel this month.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who backed McCarthy but has caused headaches for GOP leadership in the past, also got a slot on the panel.
Meanwhile, McCarthy named Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who had been suspended from social media platforms for promoting Covid misinformation, to the select committee on the coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a …read more
Source:: AOL.com