Dems Nominate Schiff, Swalwell to House Intel Committee, Prompting Fight With McCarthy
Facts
- House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday formally recommended for Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to continue serving on the House Intelligence Committee, despite newly-voted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) having previously vowed to block the pair.
- Jeffries officially recommended them in a letter sent to McCarthy on Saturday, citing their "decades of distinguished leadership" in the intelligence community and careers as prosecutors before serving in Congress.
- He argued that Speaker McCarthy had no justifiable reason not to accept the reappointments, highlighting an apparent "double standard" as Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) — who he deemed a "serial fraudster" — has been placed on two standing committees.
- This comes as McCarthy has maintained that he would consider Schiff disqualified for promoting the unverified Steele dossier, while Swalwell would be ineligible for a seat on the committee due to a brief association with a Chinese spy.
- Though deference to the minority party's Intelligence Committee recommendations is reportedly a "longstanding House tradition," Republican leaders have cited how the House's Democratic majority in the last Congress — with the support of some Republicans — removed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committees.
- Unlike the 20 permanent committees in the House, the Intelligence panel is a select committee, meaning that the House Speaker has the authority to appoint or refuse members to serve on it.
Sources: NBC, CBS, Business Insider, Axios, and ABC.
Narratives
- Democratic narrative, as provided by The Washington Post. The attempts to deny spots on key panels to Democrats were partly in retaliation to the removal of Majorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from other committee assignments. No legitimate wrongdoing has been found to have been committed by either Schiff or Swalwell, and there is no reason outside of partisan politics for their potential rejection by McCarthy.
- Republican narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Schiff perpetuated the improper Trump-Russia collusion theory, while Swalwell has ties to Chinese espionage. Though Jeffries has stated any rejection would go against House precedent, it was former Speaker Nancy Pelosi who first rejected McCarthy's recommendations in 2021. McCarthy and the Republican Party are well within their rights to act according to their own conscience on the matter.