In a tense exchange with the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, reporters brought up George Santos when asking the California Republican about his decision to unilaterally remove Democrats from committees.
Several reporters have drawn comparisons between Republican New York Rep. George Santos and Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell in an attempt to paint McCarthy as a hypocrite.
McCarthy responded by presenting a sharp contrast between the cases.
Referring to Schiff, the speaker said the Democrat “lied to the American public.”
“Even the inspector general said it. When Devin Nunes put out a memo, said it was false. When we had a laptop, he used it before an election to play politics and say that it was false and said it was the Russians when he knew different, when he knew the intel,” McCarthy said. “He used his position as chairman, knowing he has information the rest of America does not, and lied to the American public.”
Schiff infamously tried to prevent the release of the Nunes Memo. The memo revealed that the FBI obtained warrants to surveil a Trump campaign staffer from the secret FISA court in 2016, but did not inform the court that the information used to justify the warrant originated from Democratic sources. Schiff then released his own memo, which made false claims that contrasted the findings of the Nunes Memo.
For Kevin McCarthy, the cardinal sin appears to be that I led the impeachment of his Master at Mar-a-Lago.
If McCarthy thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out differently. pic.twitter.com/vdDixOgIQ0
— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) January 25, 2023
Eric Swalwell, the Democratic Representative from California, came under fire after it was revealed that he had contact with Chinese spy Christine Fang — also known as “Fang Fang.”
McCarthy claimed that Swalwell’s actions made him too large a security risk for the Intelligence Committee.
Santos has told many outright lies about his past — including his education, employment, relationship status, and religious background — but none of them appear to affect national security or subvert the political process.