Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar Team Up to Thrash McCarthy Booting Them From Committees: ‘The Hypocrisy Grabs You By the Throat’

Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA), Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) gave a joint repudiation to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s efforts to block them from Congressional committee assignments.

The three lawmakers joined CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday McCarthy’s expelling Schiff and Swalwell from the House Intel Committee, plus McCarthy’s pledge to have Omar removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Bash questioned each of the House members about the speaker’s justifications for removing them — starting by asking Schiff about the accusation that he misled Americans by claiming “direct evidence” that former President Donald Trump “colluded” with Russia in 2016.

Schiff answered by slamming the pretexts of McCarthy’s actions while describing them as motivated by political vengeance.

Let’s be clear really going on here. McCarthy has said that ‘Adam Schiff prosecuted the case against Trump, the Ukraine impeachment was a hoax.’ He has given 15 explanations. The only real explanation is he needs Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vote, he needs Paul Gosar’s vote. He wants to retaliate for their removal from the committee, and apparently, he believes I was very effective in exposing his misconduct, Donald Trump’s misconduct, and that’s what they’re try to stop. So, I think that he benefits from having these smears repeated, and that’s part of what he gains from it, but this is a pretext and nothing more.

Bash then turned to Swalwell — noting that McCarthy has repeatedly criticized him for his office’s interactions years ago with an alleged Chinese spy. Swalwell said that FBI has never accused him of wrongdoing, and he dug into McCarthy’s attempt to “weaponize” the matter against him:

There’s nothing there. I did what every American should have. This is some Bakersfield BS. 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.

The CNN anchor then questioned Omar about her repeated accusations of anti-Semitic statements, plus other controversial remarks over the years. After Bash listed several examples, Omar stated that she apologized for her previous comments, and she insinuated that Congressional Republicans are ignoring their own controversies while attempting to smear her for being a Muslim and a Somalian-American refugee.

“These people are okay with Islamophobia, they’re okay with trafficking in their own ways, in anti-semitism,” Omar said. “They are not okay with having a Muslim have a voice on that committee.”

Bash then asked Schiff, as a Jewish man, what he thought about Omar’s anti-Jewish past tropes. He answered by repeating Swalwell’s callout for McCarthy’s “Bakersfield BS,” and he slammed the GOP for running with this pretext while ignoring George Santos’ lies and Trump’s recent dinner with Neo-Nazis.

“The hypocrisy just grabs you by the throat,” Schiff said.

Watch above via CNN.