McCarthy Blocks Schiff and Swalwell from Intel Panel

Good. They can use the extra time to be on MSNBC all day, making up bullsh!t stories. Which is the same thing they did when they were on the Intel Committee.

So we're just cutting out the middle-man, and passing the savings on to YOU.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) had written to McCarthy on Saturday asking that both Schiff and Swalwell be seated on the Intel panel, where membership assignments come solely at the discretion of the Speaker.

But McCarthy said Schiff's and Swalwell's previous actions make them unfit to serve on a panel with jurisdiction over and access to sensitive issues of national security.

"In order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee's responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee," he wrote in a letter to Jeffries on Tuesday.

The move was no surprise.

Republicans have been up in arms over the issue since 2021, when Democrats staged votes to remove GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) from their committees following revelations that they had promoted violence against some of their Democratic colleagues.

They did? Or they supported the January 6th protests?

Media, are you lying as usual?

...

Still, McCarthy on Tuesday denied that his decision regarding Schiff and Swalwell was retribution for Greene and Gosar.

"This is not not anything political. This is not similar to what the Democrats did," McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday evening just outside his office in the Capitol.

...

McCarthy has accused him of lying to the public about Trump's ties to Russia -- a charge that Schiff has dismissed as political retribution.

"His objection seems to be that I was the lead impeachment manager in Donald Trump's first impeachment and that we held him accountable for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Ukraine in order to try to extort that country into helping his political campaign," Schiff told reporters Tuesday night.

Gee, Media, I wish there were some way to resolve this claim-counterclaim situation beyond just giving a he-said/she-said (with the she, Adam Schiff, getting the last and most detailed word, of course). I wish there were some kind of internet search function -- let's make up a word, and call this process "googling" -- which would allow you to discover what Adam Schiff said about actually having seen with his own eyes classified documents constituting conclusive proof that Trump colluded with Russia, and then the sections of the Mueller report stating that no such evidence exists or has ever existed outside the alcohol-soaked and diseased mind of Hillary Clinton, and then Adam Schiff's walk-backs stating that when he said he saw classified documents that proved Russian collusion, he meant he saw the same public Trump statements that everyone saw and made his conclusion based on that.

I wish there were some way for you to prove when someone isn't telling the truth, Media. It sure seems very important to you when the person you're accusing of lying is a Republican. But when it's a Democrat, suddenly you just want to throw up your hands and say, "This guy's saying one thing and this other feller's sayin' the other and gosh who knows, who can tell?! It's crazy!"

Or wait, do you know about Google already? Are you just lying again, Media?

Yeah, probably. That sounds like you, Media.

Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar might not be blocked from the Foreign Affairs committee. Unlike positions on the Intel Committee, which McCarthy himself has power to reject, Omar's position will be voted on by the whole House -- and of course two fake Republicans, including Nancy Mace, are balking at borking her.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) announced Tuesday that she will not support keeping Omar off the Foreign Affairs committee, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has expressed a coolness to the idea.

Republicans can afford to lose only four votes in the narrowly split House amid united Democratic opposition, which means the party can afford only two more defectors to still block Omar. That number could shrink to one if Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), who is recovering in Florida from a fall, misses the vote. The congressman on Monday said he will be "sidelined in Sarasota for several weeks."

posted by Lamont the Big Dummy at 12:05 PM

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