House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) will introduce a resolution on Thursday calling on Democrats to remove Representative Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee.
Democrats say that they will not remove Swalwell, and have refused to do so since Axios reported in December that a suspected Chinese spy helped fundraise for the congressman’s campaign. The alleged spy, Christina Fang, helped fundraise for Swalwell in 2014 and placed an intern in his office.
“I don’t think that person [Swalwell] should be on Intel,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News. “Based upon the information I was given and the speaker was given by the FBI, there is no way he should be on that committee at all.”
McCarthy also said the issue “is not about Eric Swalwell. But if an individual could not get a clearance in the private sector, they shouldn’t be on Intel. I don’t think it’s that difficult.”
McCarthy made similar comments in December after he was briefed by the FBI on Swalwell. Republicans and Democrats have clashed over Swalwell’s continued presence on the committee, and Swalwell has lashed out at McCarthy over this and other issues.
“Let’s just say the quiet part out loud: there is no dumber man in America than this loser,” Swalwell wrote of McCarthy on Twitter last week. Swalwell told Punchbowl that McCarthy “is a 14-carat liar.”
Swalwell has not been accused of aiding Fang’s espionage efforts, and the representative severed ties with Fang in 2015 after he was notified by federal investigators of the suspicions against her.