House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Republican delegates gathered in Sacramento on Saturday that Rep. Adam Schiff “should never” be elected Senator in California.
McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, speaking to the California Republican Party Spring 2023 Organizing Convention, used his time at the podium to call out prominent California Democrats like 2024 Senate candidate Schiff, D-Burbank, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
He accused Schiff and Swalwell of lying “time and time again” during their tenure on the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees the FBI, the CIA, and other national security agencies.
“I promised before I was elected, if I was fortunate enough to become Speaker, we would change the Intel Committee from the ‘impeachment committee’ to what it’s supposed to be,” McCarthy said at the convention. Schiff and Swalwell “dropped the ball” as committee members, he said.
McCarthy did not explain Saturday what Schiff allegedly lied about. In the past he has accused Schiff of lying when he claimed he did not know the whistleblower who had first-hand knowledge that Trump tried to get Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
“When a whistleblower came forward, [Schiff] said he did not know the individual even though his staff had met with him and set it up,” McCarthy told reporters in January. A member of Schiff’s staff reportedly knew the whistleblower — which Schiff denied — but Schiff himself had not met with them.
In 2020, Axios reported that Swalwell, who served as a manager in Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial, was targeted by a suspected Chinese intelligence operative as part of an influence campaign in 2014, prior to his service on the intelligence committee. He was not been accused of any wrongdoing.
After the 15 rounds of voting it took for McCarthy to be elected Speaker of the House in January, one of the first things he did was remove Schiff and Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.
“You should be held to a higher bar” to be placed on such a committee, McCarthy said on Saturday. “You cannot use your position as Intel chair to lie to the American public as Schiff has done time and time again.”
In a January letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), McCarthy cited a “misuse of this panel during the 116th and 117th Congress,” which “undermined its primary national security and oversight missions — ultimately leaving the country less safe.”
Rep. Schiff, who served as Intel Committee chairman from 2015 to 2019, led the committee through former President Donald Trump’s two impeachment inquiries. He announced his run for Senate in late January, the same week that McCarthy removed him from the committee.
The Sacramento Bee reached out to his office for comment but did not hear back. An early poll in February showed Schiff the current front-runner to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will retire in 2024.
McCarthy had similarly strong words for Gov. Newsom — and Democratic “overspending” in general.
“We’ve watched what Gavin has done to our state,” he said. Newsom is “the only Governor I know that can take a budget surplus and bring it into a budget deficit.”
“He’s the only Governor I know in the country that thinks spending $128 billion on a train to nowhere is a good investment … the only thing I think Gavin spends more time on than high speed rails is spending time on his hair.”
McCarthy said that the first of his three priorities going into 2024 is the country’s $31 million deficit; his other priorities are changing the education system via a “Parents Bill of Rights” and taking a more aggressive approach in dealing with China.
McCarthy met with President Joe Biden last month, and said he told him two things: that he would never support raising taxes, and that he would never pass a bill that would raise the debt ceiling without also incorporating spending cuts.
“If you want to cut spending and find savings, I’m all in,” he said he told the President.
Missing from McCarthy’s speech was the acknowledgment that, under the Trump administration, the national debt rose by nearly $7.8 trillion. It was the third-biggest deficit increase of any presidential administration.
McCarthy also pledged to take aggressive action on border crossings, fentanyl use and distribution, and efforts to defund the police.
“We’re going to make your streets safe again,” he said.
©2023 The Sacramento Bee. Visit sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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When we elect Godless, dishonest, immoral, hateful self-righteous, self-serving political representatives like the corrupt, demented, puppet Joe Biden, Tinkerbell PinocchiObama, the hateful Nancy Pelosi, racist Maxine Waters, Liars Adam Schiff & Chuck Schumer, Useless Kamala Harris, Bimbo Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Muslim Ilhan Omar, squaw Elizabeth Warren and racist Ayanna Pressley who intentionally pit one group against another to divide the country and cultivate hate and distrust, you gotta ask yourself; what are the motives of these type people? To lead the country into prosperity OR to gain control, stay in power any way possible and to dominate the citizens? No matter the costs to the people, the government or the nation.
I’ll second that and Schiff isn’t the only one.
HE Should be in jail!
Glad to see that McCarthy isn’t afraid to speak the truth.
The problem is that being a liar is just a career enhancement for a Democrat. That’s how their voters know they have the right guy for them.
To the demonic Democrat Party and their Democrat RINOs and their “useful idiots”, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History are all irrelevant, if the Democrats or their RINOs do not WANT to believe them or they disagree with them. Democrats will just make up their own, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History to fit what they WANT to believe or fits into the Con or Deception that they are running at the time and attempt to silence or destroy anyone or anything that doesn’t bow down to their lies, cons and deceptions. 🙁 🙁
IF they ain’t lying, they ain’t a demon-rat.
I wasn’t sure about McCarthy though so far he’s doing better than I’d thought. However, I’m not interested in being appeased by these Bread and Circus Shows, I want these Leftist Criminals in prison. We’ve been placated by the Establishment GOP for far too long.
He’s talking the talk well so far.. BUT can he walk the walk?
All sorts of people lie about all sorts of things, to varying degrees, justified by all sorts of rationalizations. It is just a part the human DNA. Does anyone expect a change in this human characteristic anytime soon? Would limiting the time politicians can spend lying be of any help?
Shiff, and others of his ilk, provide all the justification required for term limits on elected political offices. The executive branch is limited to two four year terms. Would it be beneficial to limit the terms of the legislative branch to a total of six years for each house?
And while we are at it, how about limiting the amendments for all bills presented to became Federal legislation to only those amendments that pertain to the original purpose of the bill? How many politicians have been quoted as saying, to the effect, one must past the bill in order to know what is in it? Do many people realize just how much the practice of inserting non-related amendments, to be buried in someone else’s bill, are at the core of much that ails us?
Let’s get back to the Stand Alone bills! stop adding and adding more bills to one, turning it into 2000 and more page bill, that does not get read before being voted on. Congressmen and Senators need to all get back to Stand alone bills.
IF a bill can’t PASS ON ITS OWN MERITS< it shouldn't be allowed to get "back ended into a bill that must pass".
if lies eliminated people from Congress, most of current Congress would be ousted (along with biden long ago)
I think McCarthy has proven he is worthy of the Speaker job. I admit I personally had my doubts about anyone with a pulse from California would ever be a friend of the conservative movement since Ronald Reagan passed on.
SO far, he’s kept his side up.. SO far..