How Is Kevin McCarthy Doing As Speaker of the House?

Interesting things are happening in the U.S. House of Representatives since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) became Speaker of the House. McCarthy’s latest act was to boot Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the ultra-sensitive House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on which they previously served. They are fighting against their removal, and even Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is battling for their reinstatement. However, McCarthy has stood strong.

You see, McCarthy has several reasons for acting as he did. In the first place, Democrats established the precedent to permit the Speaker to veto nominees put forth by the House Minority Leader for assignments on committees. They did this when they created the January 6 Committee and rejected McCarthy’s nominees.

McCarthy’s other reasons are far more important. When Jeffries sent a letter to McCarthy asking for the reinstatement of Schiff and Swalwell to the Intelligence Committee, McCarthy replied, “I have rejected the appointments of Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell for the House Intelligence Committee. I am committed to returning the @HouseIntel Committee to one of genuine honesty and credibility that regains the trust of the American people.” 

Neither Schiff nor Swalwell can be trusted with the nation’s intelligence. Schiff lied repeatedly about having evidence that Donald Trump was colluding with the Russians, but the Russian Hoax played out without him bringing any such evidence to the forefront.

Mike Pompeo served first as CIA Director and then as Secretary of State during the Trump administration. He appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered” recently and claimed that he knows that Schiff leaked classified information while he served in those roles. Pompeo claimed that Schiff “leaked classified information that had been provided to him.” He continued by saying that classified information that had been supplied to Schiff and his staff showed up in places where it should not have been “with alarming regularity.” 

As for Swalwell, McCarthy was calling for him to be removed from the House Intelligence Committee as early as December 2020. He made his calls “after reports that his office was allegedly targeted by a woman believed to be a Chinese spy.” McCarthy tweeted, “Rep. Swalwell has long been disqualified from serving on the Intel Committee. For years he peddled Russian disinformation for political gain. Now we find out he was involved in an effort by a reported spy to gather info for China. Swalwell is a national security liability.” 

About the same time, McCarthy appeared on Fox News and took a swing at former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for placing Swalwell on the Intel Committee even though she had knowledge of the situation. “These are Chinese spies that go down to the level of a mayor., They court and help a city council member become a congressman. This congressman now gets on the Intel Committee.” He continued by saying that only the leaders can place members on the committee, meaning Nancy Pelosi. Recently, McCarthy said that the FBI gave him a briefing about Swalwell showing that he “cannot get a security clearance in the private sector.” 

I agree with McCarthy’s actions with Schiff and Swalwell. No one trusts Schiff to tell them the truth, and rumors are that Swalwell was sleeping with the Chinese spy known as Fang Fang. Our nation’s intelligence is too critical to be trusted with such people.