Adam Schiff on Being Kicked from Intel Committee: This Will Bring ‘Distrust’ to Intel Community

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) claimed that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) kicking Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and himself off the Intelligence Committee would ultimately bring “distrust” to the intelligence community that shares classified information with them.

Schiff, who has already started to fundraise off of being blocked from the Intel Committee, led a press conference on Wednesday flanked by Swalwell and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), criticizing McCarthy’s decision.  He stated:

By arrogating, to himself [McCarthy], the decision about who on the Democratic side of the aisle should lead the Intelligence Committee who should sit on the Intelligence Committee, he will cause the intelligence agencies I think, to distrust this action and in combination with the formation of this so called Select Committee on the weaponization of the federal government, which ostensibly will have access to classified information, it will only I think, will breed distrust within the intelligence community as to what it can share and what it can feel confident about sharing with the Congress that will impact policymakers in terms of the information that we have to make decisions about how to protect our national security. [Emphasis added.]

The California congressman noted that McCarthy blocked members from being placed on specific committees to “bow to the demands of the most extreme elements of his conference,” as well as former President Donald Trump. He also claimed McCarthy blocking him from the committee shows the Speaker’s “weakness” in the position.

The group’s press conference comes after McCarthy directed a letter to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Tuesday, “rejecting” Schiff and Swalwell’s appointments to the Intel Committee.”

The move from McCarthy came after he recently reaffirmed his plans to remove the Democrats from their specific assignments over a year ago, before he became Speaker. McCarthy made his plans clear to Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief, Matthew Boyle, during an exclusive long-form interview in December 2021.

At the time, he noted that it was because Schiff “knowingly… used a fake dossier” to lie to the American people, among other reasons, and Swalwell “cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, [so] there is no reason why he should be given one” in Congress after the FBI found that he had ties to a Chinese spy named Fang Fang, which Breitbart News also exclusively reported.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.