Schiff knocks McCarthy’s threat of removal from Intelligence Committee

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday hit back at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for vowing to oust Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee for his handling of the investigation into alleged ties between former President Trump's campaign and Russia.

"McCarthy's problem is not with what I have said about Russia. McCarthy's problem is, he can't get to 218 without Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz. And so he will do whatever they ask. And, right now, they're asking for me to be removed from our committees. And he's willing to do it. He's willing to do anything they ask. And that's the problem," Schiff said on CNN's "State of the Union," referring to conservative Republican representatives from Georgia, Arizona and Florida, respectively.

McCarthy is vying to become Speaker when the next Congress convenes and has been vocal about his plans for if he takes the top spot, vowing to remove Schiff and Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) from their committee positions.

McCarthy won the House GOP nomination to be Speaker in a 188-31 vote, but he needs to secure a majority of a floor vote among the full lower chamber to secure the gavel.

"Kevin McCarthy has no ideology. He has no core set of beliefs. It's very hard not only to get to 218 that way — it's even more difficult to keep 218. That's his problem," Schiff said on Sunday.

"So, he will misrepresent my record. He will misrepresent Eric Swalwell or Ilhan Omar, whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference."

Schiff's comments come a week after Omar swung back at McCarthy over his plans to oust her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accusing the GOP of wielding "fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism" to target her and promulgate hatred toward "Muslim and African voices."

Schiff on Sunday also swung back at McCarthy's criticisms of his Trump-Russia probe, defending his assertions that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"McCarthy apparently doesn't think it's collusion if your campaign manager is giving inside polling data and battle strategy in key states to an agent of Russian intelligence, while the Russians are helping your campaign, but most Americans would call that collusion," Schiff said.