On Sunday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reaffirmed a previous promise to take action against several far-left members of Congress who currently have seats on important committees despite dangerously radical beliefs.
Axios reports that, in an interview on Fox News, McCarthy promised to remove at least three prominent Democrats from their committee assignments: The aspiring House Speaker said he would “not allow” Congressmen Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to serve on the House Intelligence Committee any longer; he also said he would have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) removed from her position on the Foreign Affairs Committee, due to her history of “antisemitic comments.”
McCarthy previously made these promises last January, after the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives took the unprecedented step of voting to remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from her committees due to false accusations of making violent statements prior to her time in office.
“Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks,” McCarthy said on Twitter. “I’m keeping that promise.”
McCarthy had recently attended the leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, where he re-emphasized this promise in his speech.
“We watch antisemitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow in the halls of Congress,” McCarthy said during the speech.
Omar, who is Muslim and always wears a head scarf, has repeatedly attacked Jews and the state of Israel, openly tweeting antisemitic conspiracy theories suggesting that Jews have taken control of the world. She once said that “Israel has hypnotized the world,” and added her plea that “may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” She later attacked the pro-Israel group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) for allegedly exerting financial influence over Congress, mockingly tweeting “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
McCarthy is also targeting Swalwell due to long-standing accusations that the California Congressman had an affair with a known Chinese spy named Christine Fang; the two had documented ties and had been photographed together numerous times, although Swalwell has refused to answer questions regarding whether or not they had a sexual relationship.
Schiff is being targeted for removal due to his numerous “lies to the American public” regarding the discredited Christopher Steele dossier, which contained entirely false allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, which Schiff frequently promoted while claiming he had further proof of collusion; he never presented any such proof.
Republicans have been projected to win back a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, by possibly as large as 3 or 5 seats. McCarthy won the House GOP caucus’ nomination to be Speaker of the House last week, with 188 Republicans voting for him and 31 voting for his challenger, Congressman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).