(RightIsRight.co) – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has vowed to seek revenge after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) indicated that he would keep Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off of 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.”
Schiff, who served as the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has been criticized by McCarthy for promoting the debunked Trump-Russia collusion theory. Furthermore, 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.
McCarthy has also taken issue with Swalwell 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.”
Schiff and Swalwell’s removal from the Intelligence Committee comes amid growing concern about the influence of China on American politics.
It is not clear what impact, if any, their removal from the committee will have on the ongoing investigation into Chinese espionage in the US. Still, it will likely fuel further political tensions between the two parties.
