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US House Committee Drama Llama: Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar Kicked Off of Committees

 
 
 
lpetrich

lpetrich

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Many legislatures and some city councils have long had committees of their members with various specialties, and the US Congress is no exception. Most legislation first goes to some committee that specializes in its subject matter, and the committee's members may then work on it and may eventually they decide to send it to the full chamber.

AOC recalls that Bernie Sanders recommended to her to pick some committees that are about things that she is passionate about, since it is in committees where one will be spending much of one's time in Congress. When she interviewed for getting into the Oversight Committee, its then head, Elijah Cummings, asked her "Are you willing to do the work?" She was, and she has abundantly demonstrated that.

Now to the main business. On January 24, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy kicked Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off of the House's Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Democrat says booting Schiff, Swalwell from Intel committee ‘hurts our national security’ | The Hill
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) removal of Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.) from the panel will hurt the county.

Himes told “MSNBC Reports” host Alex Witt that he understands why Republicans are so angry with Schiff, who led the first impeachment of former President Trump.

“That made them angry. And to appease his right wing, Kevin McCarthy sort of had to throw Adam Schiff on the fire along with Eric Swalwell,” Himes said, referring to the Speaker’s decision to block the lawmakers from the Intelligence Committee.

“That hurts our national security. Between the two of them, they’ve got 20 years of intelligence oversight, and that evidently is gone now,” Himes added. “And that’s a — that makes us a less safe country.”

...
“This is some Bakersfield BS,” Swalwell said on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

“It’s Kevin McCarthy weaponizing his ability to commit this political abuse because he perceives me, just like Mr. Schiff and Ms. Omar, as an effective political opponent,” he said.
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McCarthy was clear that Schiff was booted because he repeatedly lied that he secret info proving Trump’s collusion with Russia when he didn’t. Swalwell had a possibility amorous relationship with a Chinese spy and, as the FBI stated, he’d be unable to get a civilian security clearance. Why would have a guy like that on the Intelligence Committee? And Omar made many openly anti-semitic statements. Why would you have her on the Foreign Relations Committee? And since Dems already established the precedent of kicking opposition party members from committees, it’s just crocodile tears. But what’s most inexplicable is that The Hill could publish an entire article and fail to report these facts. The media’s low approval rating is well deserved.
 
McCarthy officially denies Schiff and Swalwell seats on House Intelligence Committee | CNN Politics
“I cannot put partisan loyalty ahead of national security, and I cannot simply recognize years of service as the sole criteria for membership on this essential committee. Integrity matters more,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that he posted on Twitter Tuesday night.

McCarthy has cited a “new standard” from Democrats for why he would strip Schiff and Swalwell, both of California, of their committee assignments. The Democrat-led House in 2021 removed GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committees for inflammatory rhetoric, including support for violence against Democratic members of Congress.
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The two targets responded:
“It’s political vengeance,” Swalwell said following the decision on Tuesday. “It’s too bad because that committee has always been a bipartisan committee, and he’s taking one of the most precious pieces of glassware in the congressional cabinet and smashing it, and the damage is going to be irreparable.”

He added that “if a Democrat advocated for violence against another member of Congress, I would support getting rid of them.”

Schiff told reporters that “if McCarthy thinks this is going to stop me from vigorously pushing back against his efforts to tear down these institutions, he’s going to find out just how wrong he is.”

“I think this is a terrible move on his part and once again, showing McCarthy just catering to the most extreme elements of this conference,” he added.
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AS will still be in the Judiciary Committee, and ES in that committee and in the Homeland Security committee.
 
Oleg said:
McCarthy was clear that Schiff was booted because he repeatedly lied that he secret info proving Trump’s collusion with Russia when he didn’t. Swalwell had a possibility amorous relationship with a Chinese spy and, as the FBI stated, he’d be unable to get a civilian security clearance. Why would have a guy like that on the Intelligence Committee? And Omar made many openly anti-semitic statements. Why would you have her on the Foreign Relations Committee? And since Dems already established the precedent of kicking opposition party members from committees, it’s just crocodile tears. But what’s most inexplicable is that The Hill could publish an entire article and fail to report these facts. The media’s low approval rating is well deserved.
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Anyone who believes Mr McCarthy about anything is either a kneejerk partisan or extremely gullible.

I think kicking representatives off committees should be done only in extreme circumstances regardless of party.


Finally, I doubt that the any party would adhere to the standard that utterance of crazy or insulting comments disqualifies members for committee work, because there'd be a lot fewer committees and a host of representatives on both sides would be freed of committee work.
 
Now Ilhan Omar. Like AS and ES, she was allowed into a committee only to be kicked off of it again, in her case the Foreign Relations Committee.

On January 31, a Republican introduced H.Res.76 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Removing a certain Member from a certain standing committee of the House. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - IO, of course:
Whereas on February 10, 2019, Representative Ilhan Omar suggested that Jewish people and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were buying political support, saying, “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” leading to condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike for her use of an anti-Semitic trope;

...
Whereas on February 27, 2019, Representative Omar doubled down on her stance at a forum in Washington, DC, by saying, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country”;

...
Whereas in March 2019, Representative Omar trivialized the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that killed 2,977 people by describing it as “some people did something”;

Whereas on May 16, 2021, Representative Omar referred to Israel as “an apartheid state,” and went on to say that those who refused such a characterization needed to, “get on the right side of history”;

Whereas on June 7, 2021, Representative Omar equated the United States and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban by stating “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban”, establishing a false equivalency between Israel—which has the right and responsibility to protect itself and its citizens from all forms of terrorism—and Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization actively engaged in committing war crimes, including using civilians as human shields, which is banned under customary international humanitarian law;

...
Whereas when asked by the media whether she regretted her comments, Representative Omar responded, “I don't”;
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Two days later, US House members voted
It was a strictly party-line vote: Republicans voting against her 218, Democrats voting for her 211, with a "Present" vote and some non-voters.

David P. Joyce R-OH voted "Present", and three Republicans and one Democrat did not vote.

Nancy Mace Is Disappointed In Her Party. She’ll Still Toe Its Line – Rolling Stone
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) did not intend to strip Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — until, of course, she did.

As a personal matter, Mace says she has nothing against Omar. “I don’t know her from Adam,” she says, an odd contention from someone whose Capitol Hill office is literally next door to the Minnesota Democrat’s. Even if she did, the self-styled free speech champion didn’t think it was up to her colleagues to police Omar’s beliefs. “I can’t force Omar to love Israel, I can’t force Omar to recognize Israel as a state — I can’t force her to love Jewish people or like them or support them. I think it was Oscar Wilde who said he would defend to the death, you know, your right to be a dumbass.” ...

At the start of the week, Mace was resolute. She told reporters on Tuesday that there was nothing that could make her vote for Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) effort to boot Omar for past antisemitic remarks. The mission lacked due process, she explains — “and that’s where a lot of my beef came from.” She’d made a similar argument two years earlier when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “bastardized the process,” as Mace put it, when she held a vote to remove Reps. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from their committees in the same manner, a punishment for supporting violence against their Democratic colleagues.

By Thursday morning, however, Mace had changed her mind after winning a commitment from McCarthy to reform the process for removing members. Effectively, if she would support removing Omar without due process right now, then he would agree to require due process in the future. “It’s a big deal, it’s substantive,” Mace told me on Thursday afternoon. “Would I have preferred Omar to go through that before the vote? Yes, absolutely. But I would have never been able to get this done. Kevin didn’t need my vote.”
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House GOP removes Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee : NPR
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., had voiced opposition to the move throughout the week. But Thursday she told reporters she would vote yes after McCarthy committed to creating a process to handle removals through the Ethics Committee in the next 30 days.

"We shook hands ... and I got this commitment from him," Mace said. "Due process is very important to me, and preserving the institution is what this will do."
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House votes to kick Rep. Ilhan Omar off Foreign Affairs Committee - CBS News
GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of those with reservations who in the end voted for the resolution, said she secured a commitment from McCarthy to support working with Democrats to reform the process for removal, with the goal of avoiding an endless tit-for-tat when control of the House flips.

"Everybody recognizes on both sides that you don't want to keep going back and forth," Mace told reporters on Capitol Hill. "So if this is going to be the standard, let's create the standard together going forward and actually have a process, because we have a process for censorship, we have a process for expelling a member from Congress, but we don't have a process in the rules or in the Ethics Committee to remove a member from your committees."
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Watch Ilhan Omar's speech before vote to remove her | CNN Politics - on YouTube
She said that it was about who gets to be a Real American. Then mentioning Donald Trump's championing of birtherism about Barack Obama, implying that BO is not a Real American. After mentioning coming to the US from Somalia with its civil war, she stated that the Foreign Relations Committee's job is not to countersign whatever the President's Administration decides. So she will continue to speak out. She then stated that he 9-year-old self would be disappointed in her if she didn't say anything about what she went through back then.

Cori Bush and AOC were sitting behind her.

WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez defends Ilhan Omar on House floor - YouTube - saying that IO was being removed for something not nearly as bad as threatening a fellow member's life, that a certain member gets away with conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers, and saying that this was about targeting "women of color".

Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman were sitting behind her, and they both appreciated her speech. Some people claimed that AOC was ripping off the style of some black preachers, however.
 
US Congress committees:

US House: Agriculture; Appropriations#; Armed Services; Budget; Education and the Workforce; Energy and Commerce#; Ethics; Financial Services#; Foreign Affairs; Homeland Security; House Administration; Judiciary; Natural Resources; Oversight and Accountability; Rules#; Science; Space; and Technology; Small Business; Transportation and Infrastructure; Veterans’ Affairs; Ways and Means; Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
# = exclusive committee

US Senate: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Indian Affairs; Judiciary; Rules and Administration; Select Committee on Ethics; Select Committee on Intelligence; Small Business and Entrepreneurship; Special Committee on Aging; Veterans' Affairs

Both: Joint Economic Committee, Joint Committee on the Library, Joint Committee on Printing, Joint Committee on Taxation

In addition, Congress has various committees that come and go between different numbered Congresses.

This one has Select Committees on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party and on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the previous one had Select Committees on the Climate Crisis, on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, on the Modernization of Congress, and to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Committees No Longer Standing | house.gov and Committees of the U.S. Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
 
Oleg said:
And Omar made many openly anti-semitic statements. Why would you have her on the Foreign Relations Committee?
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Are you fucking serious? Let's hear what is considered so openly anti semitic to Republicans. Tell me what she said that was so hateful. Rest assured, I'll have a few follow up questions when you do.
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: “Committee Update (Finally!)” - a nice little talk about her committee assignments.

Since this is her third term, this gives her some seniority, and that means more choice in committee assignments. For her first two terms, she got Oversight and Financial Services, and in this term, she wanted to continue with both. But there was a problem. The Financial Services Committee is an exclusive one, though it's possible to get a waiver to serve in another committee. She got one the previous two times, but this time, the House leadership is more strict, and she conceded that it was a very awkward choice for her to make. So she chose Oversight, and for her second committee, Natural Resources. That committee is in charges of Federal lands and Federal territories like Puerto Rico. In Oversight, she became Ranking Member Jamie Raskin's second in command.

AOC wanted to get into the Ways and Means committee when she was first elected, and into the Energy and Commerce Committee when she was re-elected, but she was not successful.

Full Committee on Oversight and Accountability - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

On the Republican side: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Jim Jordan, Nancy Mace, ...

On the Democratic side: Jamie Raskin, Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC delegate), Ro Khanna, AOC, Katie Porter, Cori Bush, newcomers Maxwell Frost, Becca Balint, Summer Lee, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Dan Goldman, Shontel Brown, ...
 
Patooka said:
Oleg said:
And Omar made many openly anti-semitic statements. Why would you have her on the Foreign Relations Committee?
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Are you fucking serious? Let's hear what is considered so openly anti semitic to Republicans. Tell me what she said that was so hateful. Rest assured, I'll have a few follow up questions when you do.
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Are you implying that barenaked assertions are not sufficient? How dare you!
 
Omar faced increasing backlash after suggesting Republican support of Israel is fueled by donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a prominent pro-Israel group.

On Sunday, Omar responded to a tweet by journalist Glenn Greenwald that reads, “GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It’s stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans.”

Omar replied, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” followed by a musical notes emoji. Omar has been critical of the Israeli government over its treatment of Palestinians and supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a non-violent activist campaign that aims to put economic and political pressure on Israel over its actions toward Palestinians, including calling for an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
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That's the best I could find.
 
Politesse said:
In Republican land, criticizing Israel for any reason is "anti-semitism", while openly supporting Nazism is just "our freedoms".
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Indeed. It's almost as if they have some kind of faith that they can be bad and just use two different lexicons for when they want it to be a freedom (them) and when it is "anti-Semitism", and for them, it's "are they me or someone I like?"
Faith.
Bad Faith.
 
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