Rep. Adam Schiff slammed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy after the California Republican warned Democrats of setting a disastrous precedent in removing Rep. Marjorie Greene Taylor from her committee assignments.
“Kevin McCarthy stands for nothing except the perpetuation of his own position,” Schiff said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “He has no values. And in my view, cares about little except for hoping to be speaker one day, God forbid.”
The California Democrat, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, referenced violent rhetoric, as well as the unearthed conspiracy theories and incendiary comments embraced and uttered by Greene over the years that have generated intense controversy in the halls of Congress.
“If members of either party are threatening violence against other members of the party, of the body and suggesting they be executed. If they are casting doubt on 9/11 or school shootings, if they’re heckling victims of crime like Marjorie Taylor Greene did with the victim of the Parkland shooting. If they’re suggesting that a religious group is shooting laser beams to start forest fires, they should be expelled from their committees, whatever party they are in. They shouldn’t, frankly, even be in the Congress,” Schiff said.
House Democrats voted to strip Greene, a freshman lawmakers from Georgia, of her committee assignments on Thursday. Eleven Republicans broke ranks and voted with the Democrats. In a floor speech before the vote, Greene expressed regret for her past support for conspiracy theories such as QAnon and addressed other statements, but also blamed the media, claiming they are “just guilty as QAnon” of presenting disinformation and dividing people.
McCarthy, who said he condemned Greene’s past comments, said the Democratic resolution set a “dangerous” standard that would more deeply divide the House.
“If people are held to what they have said prior to even being in this House, if [the] majority party gets to decide who sits on what other committees, I hope you keep that standard because we have a long list you can work within your own,” he said.
Schiff, who is reportedly lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom to be California’s next attorney general, said he was not worried about such a precedent.
“As long as we hold the same standard. You have members that are threatening to execute each other, they should be removed from their committees,” he said.
