House Republican Refuses to Support McCarthy Expulsion of Dems from Committees: ‘I Can’t Be a Hypocrite’
Congresswoman Victoria Spartz (R-IN) warned House Speaker Kevin McCarthy against being a hypocrite as she urged him to stop focusing on having Democratic lawmakers kicked out of House committees.
Spartz gave a broad interview to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, who noted that the Republican rep just put out a statement rebuking McCarthy’s push to have Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and other Democrats expelled from their committee assignments.
Asked why she spoke out, Spartz explained she was “very upset” when House Democrats voted to strip Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of their assignments back when both of them were embroiled in controversy.
From Spartz’s point of view, the removal was done in the court of public opinion, “without proper due process.”
We are a country of the rule of law and proper due process, and you are innocent until proven guilty. We cannot just turn around and do exactly the same thing. It’s a hypocrisy. I will not be able to have credibility to argue in the Judiciary Committee again. I think it’s important for us.
If Kevin McCarthy has some concerns, we have an Ethics committee. He needs to make his accusations — and these people have to make their case. I’m not defending them. My opinions with them on a lot of issues are night and day. I want to defend the due process of this institution because we are becoming like a theater full of actors in the circus. It’s unacceptable. We have to govern for the people. It’s not happening here.
Since McCarthy has threatened to have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) pulled off of her assignments as well, Mitchell asked Spartz whether she would support McCarthy if he follows through with that.
“I’m going to see what is happening,” she answered, “but If he’s not going to have a proper due process, I cannot be a hypocrite and support this. We’ll see what Speaker McCarthy is going to decide. I know there’s a lot of bad blood and anger from what Speaker Pelosi had done, but as I said, two wrongs don’t make a right, and we should not be doing the same.”
In a Wednesday morning presser, Rep. Swalwell blasted the move by McCarthy as being an act of “vengeance” and added that he and his colleagues believe McCarthy has “intent” to provoke death threats against them.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
