On Tuesday (January 24), Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), and Eric Swalwell (Calif.) released a joint statement lambasting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA.) decision to remove them from Committee assignments as “political vengeance.”
Their statements come after McCarthy repeatedly blocked their appointments.
The three Democratic lawmakers described the House Speaker’s actions as “disappointing but not surprising.”
They criticized him for embracing “the right wing of his caucus,” which they believed was “undermining the integrity of the Congress.”
The joint statement continued claiming McCarthy’s decision was “harming our national security in the process.”
The joint statement is the most recent exchange between McCarthy and the three Democrats in an ongoing tiff that began after GOP won the House majority and McCarthy was elected Speaker.
The three also took a swipe at McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker, asserting that the California Republican had agreed to a “corrupt bargain” in what they believed was a “desperate, and nearly failed, attempt to win the Speakership.”
The bargain, they said, “required political vengeance against the three of us.
McCarthy had taken away the Democrats’ choice of Committee assignments. He rejected Swalwell’s and Schiff’s bid to be appointed to the Intelligence Committee.
McCarthy also refused to appoint Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Despite receiving a letter from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the highest-ranking Democrat in the lower chamber, McCarthy has stuck to his decision.
He had insisted that he rejected Swalwell’s appointment because of his ties to suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang.
The House Speaker also explained he rejected Schiff because of his propensity to lie to the American people, and Omar, because of her criticism of Israel.
