Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich complimented Kevin McCarthy, who holds the inside track to succeed him, for outlining his plan to remove hard-core leftist Dems. from important House committees if he takes the gavel next year.
Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman who was Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, told Fox News on Monday that existing Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the first person to cleanse committees of Dems. thought to be radical. McCarthy is only following her example in designating Ilhan Omar, D-MN, and California Dems. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell ineligible for committee duties, according to Gingrich.
“I believe Nancy Pelosi set the standard,” Gingrich stated. “I believe Kevin McCarthy is following in her footsteps,” Gingrich remarked. “So the Democrats don’t have anything to gripe about since they initiated this dance, and to be honest, the three people he’s chosen so thoroughly deserve to be thrown off committees.”
McCarthy, the existing House Minority Leader, is likely to become Speaker following Republicans’ victory in the midterm elections last week. On Sunday, he informed Fox News that he will remove Schiff, who promoted misinformation about the Trump-Russia collusion lie, and Swalwell, who supposedly had a romance with a Chinese spy, from the House Intelligence Committee.
McCarthy had previously stated that he would not allow Omar to sit on the House Foreign Relations Committee, noting her previous anti-Semitic rants in which she equated the United States and Israel to the Taliban.
McCarthy, according to Gingrich, is on good ground in keeping Dems. he deems untrustworthy off critical panels.
“Without a doubt, Adam Schiff made a profession out of telling lies to the American people while acting as head of the Intelligence Committee,” Gingrich stated. “Swalwell had an affair with a Chinese communist; that’s unthinkable for someone with security clearance. And, of course, Omar is a virulently anti-Israel, anti-Semitic orator who has regularly breached civilized conventions.”
“So those are three fairly solid targets, in my opinion. And I applaud Speaker-elect McCarthy for confronting them head on,” Gingrich continued.
