Two weeks after the 2022 midterm elections, as then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy prepared to become speaker, the Republican leader told Fox News about one of his early priorities for the 118th Congress: He was eager to remove Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.
Ordinarily, such a decision wouldn’t be his to make. As speaker, McCarthy has the authority to intervene on select panels’ membership, but under modern congressional norms, Democratic leaders are responsible for choosing Democratic members, just as GOP leaders are responsible for choosing Republican members.
McCarthy nevertheless repeatedly said he’d take the unusual step of vetoing his fellow Californians — even using a degree of McCarthyism, claiming to have secret incriminating evidence he can’t share.
In theory, Democratic leaders could see where this is headed, take the new speaker’s threats at face value, and reassign Swalwell and Schiff to other…
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