议长凯文·麦卡锡和主要共和党人预计将很快兑现誓言阻止三名民主党人在新众议院有影响力的委员会中占有席位。
麦卡锡的焦点是明尼苏达州众议员伊尔汉·奥马尔(Ilhan Omar)，他曾在众议院外交事务委员会任职，以及众议员亚当·希夫(Adam Schiff)和埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔(Eric Swalwell)，两名加利福尼亚州议员曾在众议院情报委员会任职。
“麦卡锡议长证实，亚当·希夫、埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔和伊尔汉·奥马尔将被英特尔和外交事务委员会除名。许下的承诺。信守承诺!”众议员特洛伊·尼尔斯是保守派众议院自由核心小组的成员，发微博星期二。
麦卡锡长期以来一直承诺要驱逐这三人，理由是反对他们的行为以及以前众议院取消共和党代表委员会任务的先例。佐治亚州的马乔里·泰勒·格林和亚利桑那州的保罗·戈萨。
在这些情况下，众议院的民主党多数派和一些共和党人投票罢免了格林和戈萨尔的煽动性行为，包括格林传播阴谋论-其中一些她已经放弃-和戈萨尔分享了一个生动的社交媒体视频，描述了对总统乔·拜登和众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯的暴力行为。(戈萨尔在争议声中说，“我不支持暴力。”)
这两名极右翼共和党人去年也因参加佛罗里达州的白人民族主义集会而受到谴责。麦卡锡刚刚结束了对以色列的访问，他当时回应说，“我们党内没有这种地方。...该党在任何时候、任何地方都不应该与反犹太主义者有联系。”
但有消息称，尽管格林过去有争议，但她很可能在新国会的众议院监督委员会中占有一席之地。
在周二的新闻发布会上，众议院多数党领袖史蒂夫·斯卡利斯(Steve Scalise)被问及剥夺民主党成员任务的过程是什么，他说还没有人被分配到委员会。但他暗示，罢免是民主党人首次设定的新标准。
斯卡利斯说:“正如我们所看到的那样，民主党开创了一个先例，我们强烈敦促他们不要在上届国会中下台。”
“他们决定要打破已经存在了200多年的先例，清除我们党挑选的反对党成员，”他继续说道。“这是他们设定的惯例，所以很明显，我们将非常密切地关注他们任命谁。他们还没有任命任何人进入委员会，但我们会看看他们是否会这样做。”
11月共和党赢回众议院后，麦卡锡重申去福克斯新闻频道他计划不让三名民主党人在委员会任职。
众议院民主党核心小组主席、众议员皮特·阿吉拉尔(Pete Aguilar)周二拒绝详细说明如果希夫和斯瓦尔韦尔被共和党人从情报小组阻止或解雇，接下来将采取的措施。
阿吉拉尔对记者说:“我们将发送这个核心小组支持的、有资格在委员会任职的个人的姓名。”“除此之外，演讲者所做的事情我们会处理...但这不是我们今天要进的任何东西。”
希夫先前讨论了他的委员会任务的潜在取消在11月的一次采访中美国广播公司“本周”联合主持人乔纳森·卡尔。
“我怀疑他会做任何马乔里·泰勒·格林想要他做的事情，”希夫在谈到麦卡锡时说。“他在他的会议中是一个非常软弱的领导人，这意味着他将坚持最低共同标准的愿望。如果最小公分母想把人从委员会中剔除，他们就会这么做。”
麦卡锡指责希夫在引用一份有争议的档案时向公众撒谎，该档案声称概述了前总统唐纳德·特朗普2016年的竞选活动与俄罗斯之间的联系。
麦卡锡还称斯威尔是“国家安全威胁”，因为据报道，斯威尔与一名所谓的中国间谍发生了口角，并表示他不可能被允许在该委员会任职。
据报道，Swalwell没有被指控有不当行为，他说在联邦当局向他做了简报后，他停止了与该女子的联系给美联社。
希夫在特朗普的第一次参议院审判中担任首席弹劾经理，他和斯瓦尔韦尔都是特朗普第二次弹劾审判的经理。
麦卡锡，作为议长，有权力让希夫和斯瓦尔韦尔离开情报小组，但对于任何其他委员会-像奥马尔在外交事务上-整个众议院需要简单多数投票阻止她。
另外，麦卡锡批评奥马尔，称她“反复发表反犹太和反美言论”。奥马尔之前已经为她的一些言论道歉，包括关于代表以色列政府的说客的言论。
奥马尔也回击了麦卡锡，指责他夸大针对少数族裔的言论。
“麦卡锡试图反复挑出我进行蔑视和仇恨——包括威胁要把我从我的委员会中除名——这丝毫无助于解决我们的选民所面临的问题。它无助于解决通货膨胀、医疗保健或气候危机，”她在11月的一份声明中说。
“它所做的是煽动对索马里裔美国人和任何与我有相同身份的人的恐惧和仇恨，并进一步沿着种族和民族的界线分裂我们，”她说。
McCarthy expected to keep 3 Democrats off House committees
Speaker Kevin McCarthy and leading Republicans are expected to soon make good on a vow to keep three Democrats from seats on influential committees in the new House.
McCarthy's focus is Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, two California lawmakers who have served on the House Intelligence Committee.
"Speaker McCarthy confirms that Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar are getting kicked off the Intel and Foreign Affairs Committees. Promises made. Promises kept!" Rep. Troy Nehls, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, tweeted on Tuesday.
McCarthy has long pledged to oust the three, citing objections to their behavior and the precedent of the previous House removing committee assignments for Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
In those cases, the Democratic majority and some Republicans in the House voted to remove Greene and Gosar over their inflammatory conduct, including Greene spreading conspiracy theories -- some of which she has since renounced -- and Gosar sharing an animated social media video depicting violence against President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Gosar said amid the controversy, "I do not espouse violence.")
The two far-right Republicans were also denounced last year for attending a white nationalist rally in Florida. McCarthy, who was fresh off a trip to Israel, responded at the time that "there’s no place in our party for any of this. ... The party should not be associated any time, any place with somebody who is antisemitic.”
But sources have since said that Greene, despite her past controversies, will likely have a seat on the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was asked during a press conference on Tuesday what the process would be for stripping Democratic members of their assignments and said no one had yet been assigned to committees. But he suggested removals were a new standard first set by Democrats.
"As we see what comes out, the Democrats set a precedent that we urged them strongly not to go down last Congress," Scalise said.
"They decided that they were going to break the precedent that had been in place for over 200 years and remove members of the opposing party that our party selected to be on committees," he continued. "And so that was a practice they set and so, obviously, we're going to be looking very closely at who they appoint. They haven't appointed anybody yet to committees, but we're gonna see if they do."
After Republicans won back the House in November, McCarthy reiterated to Fox News that he planned to keep the three Democrats from their committee posts.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic caucus, on Tuesday declined to elaborate on next steps should Schiff and Swalwell be blocked or booted by Republicans from the intelligence panel.
"We will send the names of the individuals who this caucus supports and are qualified to serve on committees," Aguilar told reporters. "What the speaker does beyond that is something that we will handle ... but it isn't anything we're going to get in today."
Schiff previously discussed the potential removal of his committee assignment during a November interview with ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
"I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do," Schiff said of McCarthy. "He is a very weak leader of his conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator. And if that lowest common denominator wants to remove people from committees, that's what they'll do."
McCarthy has accused Schiff of lying to the public during references to a disputed dossier that claimed to outline links between former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.
McCarthy has also called Swalwell a "national security threat" for Swalwell's reported run-ins with an alleged Chinese spy, stating there's no way he should be allowed to serve on the committee.
Swalwell has not been accused of wrongdoing and he has said he stopped contact with the woman after federal authorities briefed him, according to the Associated Press.
Schiff served as the lead impeachment manager in Trump's first Senate trial, and both he and Swalwell were managers for Trump's second impeachment trial.
McCarthy, as speaker, has the power to keep Schiff and Swalwell off the intelligence panel, but for any other committee -- like Omar on foreign affairs -- the full House would need to vote by simple majority to block her.
Separately, McCarthy's criticized Omar over what he described as her "repeated antisemitic and anti-American remarks." Omar has previously apologized for some of her statements, including about lobbyists on behalf of Israel's government.
Omar has also fired back at McCarthy, accusing him of amplifying rhetoric targeting minorities.
"McCarthy's effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred -- including threatening to strip me from my committee -- does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with. It does nothing to address inflation, healthcare, or solve the climate crisis," she said in a statement in November.
"What it does is gin up fear and hate against Somali-Americans and anyone who shares my identity, and further divide us along racial and ethnic lines," she said.
