House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) once again vowed to remove Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee if the Republicans take back the majority during midterms, this time slamming the controversial lawmaker for lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Schiff — who is best-known for his outsized role during the Trump-Russian investigation — dismissed without evidence reports about the president and his son originally published by the New York Post in the lead-up to the 2020 election, calling them nothing more than Russian “propaganda.”
But on Wednesday, more than a year after the bombshell reports surfaced, the New York Times finally admitted that the laptop story is real. The news set off another firestorm across the American media landscape as conservatives called for a reckoning against those who censored the reports and denounced them as fraudulent.
In a press conference Friday, McCarthy made sure to hold Schiff to account for his role, arguing that his dismissal of the story was just another example of the lawmaker’s routine politicization of the committee.
“The Democrats have politicized our Intelligence Committee. You’ve watched it year after year since Adam Schiff has become the chair,” McCarthy charged, according to the Washington Examiner. “No, he doesn’t warn us about Ukraine or Afghanistan or what’s happening around the world. He tells you about politics. But the worst part of it is you cannot trust what he tells you.”
“Two years ago, Schiff stated the emails found from Hunter Biden were all a whole smear on Joe Biden that comes from the Kremlin. That’s what the head of the Intel said … and what did we just find out yesterday from the New York Times? Yes, it is Joe Biden’s laptop, and yes, Adam Schiff lied to us one more time.”
McCarthy went on to argue that Democrats should have immediately removed Schiff from the panel in the wake of the New York Times story, and vowed that if Republicans retake control, changes would be made.
“Why is he still chair of the committee? And why is he even on the committee?” the GOP leader asked before asserting, “In a new Congress, if it’s a new majority, he will not be.”
“You cannot make this committee political. You cannot use it as a position of a chairman to lie, and you should be focused on what the American people want you to be focused on around the world,” he added.
It’s not the first time that McCarthy has promised to remove Schiff from the committee assignment. In January, the GOP leader promised Republicans would soon take action against the California lawmaker and two of his colleagues — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — once they take back the House.