Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of the most influential Republicans in recent decades, commended House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for his stated desire to remove hard-core leftist Democrats from position on House committees if he is elected House Speaker.
McCarthy had told Fox News, “Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector. Why would we ever give him a security clearance and the secrets to America? So I will not allow him to be on Intel. You have Adam Schiff, who had lied to the American public time and time again. We will not allow him to be on the Intel committee either. Congresswoman Omar, her anti-Semitic comments that have gone forward; we’re not going to allow her on Foreign Affairs.”
“I think (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi set the precedent,” Gingrich, whose 1994 Contract with America led to the massive 54 seats gained by the Republicans as they took control of the House for the first time since 1954, recalled. “She did something that had never been done before and reached into the minority party to decide who could and could not serve on some committees. I think Kevin McCarthy is following her precedent. So the Democrats have nothing to complain about because they started this dance and frankly, the three people he’s picked so totally deserve being kicked off committees.”
“It’s unbelievable,” Gingrich continued. “Adam Schiff made a career out of lying to the American people while serving as chairman of the Intelligence Committee without any question, just plain, flat-out lying. Swalwell has had a relationship with a Chinese communist; that’s unimaginable for somebody who’s going to have security clearance. And of course, Omar is a viciously anti-Israel, anti-Semitic orator who has consistently violated the norms of civilized behavior.”
“So I think those are three pretty good targets. And I commend Speaker-designate McCarthy for taking them head-on,” Gingrich concluded.
When he warned of his future action regarding leftist Democrats as he spoke Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, McCarthy also stated, “We’re also going to stand up to what’s happening, not just in the halls in Congress, but what’s happening to our higher education institutions, the antisemitism that’s going on on these campuses and others. We will investigate that as well and stop this to make sure that America does have the freedoms that we said we would keep, and we will stand up to it as we move forward.”
