Many months ago, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised to remove Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) off of their committees. Now that Republicans will indeed take control of the House for the next Congress and McCarthy is likely to be the next speaker, he has made good on that promise. As Katie highlighted, Rep. Omar threw a fit. Such a fit, though not surprising, is even more newsworthy given it doesn't appear that House Democratic leadership is too eager to come to her defense, or to the defense of those other members.
As Haris Alic covered for Fox News earlier on Tuesday, several House Democratic leaders failed to respond for comment:
Fox News Digital reached out to every member of the present Democratic leadership — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn — about the topic, but no response was provided. The top three Democrats likely to ascend to the leadership ladder next Congress – Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar – also declined to comment.
Regardless of the outlet requesting such a comment, it's certainly worth wondering why Democratic House members, especially those in leadership, would not to jump on the chance to stick up for their own,
Alic's report does include a statement from Rep.-elect Greg Casar (D-TX), of Texas' particularly Democratic 35th Congressional District. "He’s trying to silence a powerful voice, singling out the only Muslim on the committee, and stoking extremism and division," Casar offered.
If anyone is "stoking extremism and division," though, it is Omar. McCarthy referenced her repeated antisemitism when it comes to his decision to kick her off of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rep. Schiff, one of the Democrats in question, appeared on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, during which he was reminded by host Jonathan Karl about the move from McCarthy.
In response to Karl's reminder, Schiff offered "I suspect he will do whatever [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do." Schiff also called McCarthy "a very weak leader of his conference," adding, "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."
Again, though, McCarthy has been making such a promise for months.
During his Sunday appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is likely to be the next House Democratic leader, was not asked about the members being kicked off. He did seek to denounce the idea that Democrats are in disarray in other ways, by downplaying infighting with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
"The majesty of the House Democratic Caucus is that we are so incredibly diverse, in terms of race, and gender, and religion, and sexual orientation, region, life experience, and even ideology, from the left, to progressives, New Dems, Blue Dogs, moderate and centrist Democrats, all points in between," Jeffries declared.