It seemed a matter of time before Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) was going to kick Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) off his committees. He had been promising this for months. However, MP Swalwell in particular cannot come to terms with this, despite the fact that not only did he receive a warning, but McCarthy had cause. Thursday morning Swalwell as our friends from Twitchy highlightedused his official account to tweet profanities, quoting a clip of the speaker on Twitter. Swalwell shared a screenshot of an excerpt from a fact check from The Washington Post.
Bullshit alert. @washingtonpost gives @SpeakerMcCarthy 4 Pinocchio for this smear. https://t.co/cU88f2DHYb pic.twitter.com/hNl6cLOpSC
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 19, 2023
Disputed fact-checking, “McCarthy’s deceptive attacks on Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell,” came from Glenn Kessler on Wednesday after McCarthy tweeted a clip on Tuesday in which he had previously told the press that Swalwell was unworthy of serving not only on the House Intelligence Committee but allegedly everyone committee.
“If you had received the briefing I received from the FBI, you would not have had Swalwell on any committee,” McCarthy told the press. “And you tell me other Democrats couldn’t take this seat. He can’t get a permit in the private sector, so would you like to give him a government permit?” McCarthy later reiterated that he “not only got the go-ahead, but was also on the Intel committee. He had more information than most of all the members.”
He also explained that “the only way they even knew it was leaked was when they went to nominate him to the Intel committee and then the FBI came in and told management, ‘he’s got a problem.’ And they stopped him there endangered all of us.”
In his fact-checking, Kessler used the following statement: “If you had gotten the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have had to [Eric] Swwell on any committee.”
As for McCarthy’s reasoning, Kessler puts it this way: it’s a matter of “clear payback time” after Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) were removed from their committees , when Democrats controlled. They have since come back under Republican control in the 118th Congress.
Kessler counters McCarthy’s reasoning while justifying the digging of Gosar and Greene:
However, if you were not a regular consumer of right-wing media, you may be surprised by the accusations justifying their expulsion. Indeed, McCarthy’s reasoning is misleading and unclear, especially compared to the actions of Greene and Gosar.
Greene’s statements and social media posts received widespread coverage, and although she recanted her statements just before the House vote, 11 Republicans supported removing her from the committee. Two Republicans supported Gosar’s removal. There is no similar support within the Democratic caucus for excluding Swalwell and Schiff from the Intelligence Committee. Meanwhile, Republicans he said assign tasks to the Greene and Gosar committees in the fresh Congress.
As for kicking Swalwell off his committee, Kessler referred to the “extensive connections” between Swalwell and Fang Fang, a Chinese spy. Axios’ first report on Fang Fang mentioned that “Swalwell is never said to have done anything questionable.”
However, other reports about Swalwell and Fang Fang have since surfaced, and it is unclear how this changes the information McCarthy received during the FBI briefing. Did Kessler receive this FBI briefing? This is unlikely, especially since it relies on others who have done so, including McCarthy and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
Nevertheless, McCarthy essentially hides behind a secret briefing that suggests Swalwell did something wrong: “If you had gotten the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee.” Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received the same briefing and he told reporters she had no concerns — although, of course, she was expected to defend a fellow Democrat. But to say that she would have kept him on the commission if the FBI had warned that he was compromised strains credulity.
Previous GOP speakers are also mentioned, including former Reps. John Boehner of Ohio and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, but without much useful information. In fact, this is completely useless:
IN interview on MSNBC last weekSwalwell said then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) knew about the FBI investigation in 2015 and did not take action to remove him from the intelligence committee.
Ryan, who became speaker in October 2015 after Fang left the United States, “was not informed about the rep. Swalwell in 2015.” Ryan’s spokesman Kevin Seifert said. During the briefings in early 2015, John A. Boehner was the speaker.
“During Boehner’s time as speaker of counterintelligence officials, it was standard practice to notify the Speaker and Minority Leader and the leaders of the Republican and Democratic Intelligence Committees when members on both sides of the aisle were being given counterintelligence briefings,” he said. Boehner spokesman Dave Schnittger. “Unfortunately, we cannot discuss or confirm specific instances of notifications he received while he was speaker, as these notifications typically involved sensitive or classified information.”
The fact check also took into account McCarthy’s comments about Rep. Schiff that he “openly lied to the American public. He said he had proof. He said he didn’t know the whistleblower.” Kessler mentioned that they “found no evidence that Schiff lied about whether he knew the whistleblower’s name.”
Kessler’s reason for awarding McCarthy “four Pinocchios,” which equals “Whoppers,” is so bare-bones that it simply looks like partisan hacking:
McCarthy clearly warned there would be retaliation if Democrats began electing House committee members. Democrats punished two Republican lawmakers, and now he wants to punish two Democrats. However, unlike the public actions or statements of Greene and Gosar, which were widely condemned at the time, these expulsions appear to be based on figments of the imagination.
Schiff has consistently maintained that he did not know the whistleblower’s identity – and no evidence has emerged to the contrary, despite McCarthy’s claims that he lied about it. As for Swalwell, there is no evidence he did anything wrong, despite McCarthy’s claims that the secret briefing suggested something nefarious.
Seriously, that’s it. It’s almost as if someone on Swalwell’s or Schiff’s communications team wrote it.
Either way, there’s no denying Swalwell’s sense of desperation Trembling has covered in detail. The congressman even did it posted a tweet death threats he claims he received, which he blames on McCarthy.
However, as Twitchy mentioned, it’s worth noting that “Eric Swalwell has a curious habit of tweeting all the death threats he magically receives from people with southern accents. OK, men with southern accents. When you see the various threats he tweeted last year, you’ll notice they’re always timed conveniently for him to play the victim and shift the blame to some evil right-winger like Trump, MTG or McCarthy.”
#BEATING Libertine. @ByronDonalds he admits further @thereidout This @SpeakerMcCarthy kicks me @RepAdamSchiffAND @Ilhan from our committees purely out of revenge.
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 11, 2023
This is the person Kevin McCarthy says is qualified to serve on the HOMELAND SECURITY Committee #NotTheOnion pic.twitter.com/4iAPqOG8mU
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) January 17, 2023
This death threat comes as the FBI *repeatedly* claims I did nothing wrong, yet Kevin McCarthy persists in spreading lies about me out of pure revenge. pic.twitter.com/duQWNIoBoL
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 12, 2023
