Kevin McCarthy Is Using His Power as Speaker To Engage in Obvious Petty Revenge

Kevin McCarthy is getting revenge on Democrats by refusing to allow Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff to be seated on the House Intelligence Committee. In a purely political move that he announced was not political, per HuffPost:

McCarthy announced Tuesday he would refuse to seat Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff of California on the House Intelligence Committee — pure political payback for Democrats removing Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from committees in 2021.

In a public letter to Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who had named the pair to the intelligence committee, McCarthy said that “in order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities,” he would reject the appointment of the two Democrats.

You’ll recall that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar got their committee assignments back earlier this month because everything is awful and this is what you get when Republicans get a sliver of power! Those two shitbirds were stripped of their assignments for very real and valid reasons! MTG lamented that she could have helped the Insurrectionists win in their goal if only she had been armed, and Paul Gosar shared a cartoon video of him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and beating up President Joe Biden. As far as I can tell, all Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff have done is be much better at their jobs than Kevin McCarthy, better-liked as people, and definitely better human beings.

This has the energy of the kid no one liked in your 3rd-grade class convincing his parents to host his party at some place really cool, so now he’s lording over invites. No one respects or likes him, but he has the power, unfortunately. From HuffPost:

McCarthy can unilaterally deny seats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence because the speaker has more control over select committees than standing committees. He has also threatened to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from committees, but doing so would likely require a House vote.

McCarthy is using BS reasoning that no one believes in order to justify his decision that no one respects. From the same article:

McCarthy did not explain in his letter why Swalwell and Schiff shouldn’t serve on the committee, but he has repeatedly claimed Swalwell would be unable to get a security clearance due to a past affiliation with a Chinese spy and that Schiff had lied to the American people. Both allegations are specious.

Ugh, I’ve already wasted too many brain cells on these Republican idiots this year. Why did the American people do this to us? Why?

Obviously, Schiff and Swalwell see this for the partisan BS for what it is, and are speaking out about it:

This is an abuse of power and a waste of time, but since the Republicans took 15 votes to even elect this jagoff to the position, here we are. I’m sure there is more partisan BS to come, and I’m sure this is only the beginning. Buckle up friends, it’s going to be long two years.

(image: Win McNamee/Getty Images)