Democratic leaders bashed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) priorities for the new Congress, calling his pledge to investigate Big Tech and Hunter Biden’s business dealings “irrelevant.”
Incoming House Democratic Conference Chairman Ted Lieu (D-CA) said Republicans’ focus on President Joe Biden’s son, who is under federal investigation for alleged tax crimes, and Twitter’s censorship of a New York Post story that detailed the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop won’t help working families. He also slammed McCarthy’s threat to remove several Democratic lawmakers from their committees.
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“Recently, he put out a statement on social media saying what he’s going to focus on is Hunter Biden’s laptop. He’s actually even more irrelevant than that: He’s actually concerned about what Twitter was saying about Hunter Biden’s laptop. So how does that move the American family forward? It doesn’t,” Lieu said at a Tuesday press conference with the incoming Democratic leaders.
Twitter banned the New York Post story, which broke the news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, shortly before the 2020 election, a move that has recently come under renewed interest as Twitter CEO Elon Musk releases internal documents highlighting the company’s decision-making process as it dealt with the story.
Lieu also targeted McCarthy’s promise to remove Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee over his handling of the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.
McCarthy has said he will remove Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee for his past relationship with an alleged Chinese spy and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Relations Committee for her comments about Israel. This would partially be in retaliation for the Democrats kicking Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) off their committees in January 2021.
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“Focus on revenge, a focus on irrelevant committees, a focus on irrelevant investigations, does not help the American family,” Lieu said. “And so, we urge that he doesn’t go down these stupid, dark paths and works with Democrats as we continue to build upon the prosperity that we’ve had in these last few years.”
McCarthy is negotiating with hard-line members of his party affiliated with the conservative House Freedom Caucus for their support in his bid for speaker. So far, five Republicans have either said or strongly indicated that they won’t vote for him on Jan. 3, and he needs a full House majority of 218 to secure the gavel.
