McCarthy: Swalwell ‘Swindled by the Chinese’ — ‘He’s Jeopardizing National Security’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday reacted to the Axios report claiming a Chinese spy named Fang Fang had relationships with Democrats such as Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

McCarthy emphasized on FNC’s “Fox & Friends” that Swalwell should not be on the influential Intelligence Committee because he has been “jeopardizing national security.” He questioned how Swalwell even got on the committee as a sophomore lawmaker in the minority, to begin with.

Partial transcript as follows:

The Intel Committee is different than any other committee. It is the most difficult committee to get on. It’s only selected by the leaders of both parties. He got on as a sophomore. How could he do that? They were in the minority at the time — not very many seats. He got on as a sophomore, and now, he says, that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff knew of it. This is a national security threat. The Intel Committee does not meet in normal chambers. They meet in what is called a SCIF to protect people from listening in on what they’re talking about.

They are getting secrets that other members of Congress never are able to see, and now we have Eric Swalwell, whose been swindled by the Chinese, but what’s even more interesting here is why did he attack the American Director of Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s report, talking about the expansion of China spying throughout? Just last week, he attacked the director, John Ratcliffe, defending China. This man should not be in the Intel Committee. He’s jeopardizing national security. What is being said in those meetings inside the SCIF that we don’t want other people to hear or listen? You cannot take in your watch. You cannot take in your phone, but here, we have an individual, who Nancy Pelosi — this is the real question — when did Nancy Pelosi know of this, and why did she maintain him on the committee?

Adam Schiff, who has spent four years as chair, worried about the foreign intervention into our country, knowingly keep an individual on the committee, if he knew — as Swalwell says — that he was with a Chinese individual who was a spy, who helped him run for Congress? Then the other question is did anybody influence getting a sophomore member on to the Intel Committee?

This just raises more questions. It puts the national security of this country — and then I have another question for them. Why did the Democrats pull out of the bipartisan China task force that would look at this problem and others? And the other committee that he sits on was space and technology, science, that deals with our satellites, deals with going into space and others. Why is he so interested on that committee? These questions continue to raise about this individual.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent