Republicans get cold feet on McCarthy's 'inappropriate' plan to boot Democrats off committees: report

On Thursday, Axios reported that a number of House Republicans appear unwilling to go along with a long-advertised plan by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to kick certain Democrats off their positions on committees.

"McCarthy has vowed to kick Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) off the Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) off the Foreign Affairs Committee, but he may face opposition from his own side," reported Andrew Solender and Alayna Treene.

Among the Republicans opposed to the plan was Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

"I’m not going to support it," she told the publication. "I try to be consistent in my values ... regardless of who’s in charge."

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Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Capitol riots, made a similar statement.

"I’ve never been a fan of that," he said. "Members are elected by their districts ... To throw them off just seems inappropriate."

Republicans were enraged when Democrats used full votes of the House to strip committee assignments from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), for endorsing the killing of prominent Democrats on social media, and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who posted an anime video of himself assassinating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with a sword.

McCarthy had subsequently suggested Republicans would do the same to Omar, for making anti-Israel comments widely condemned as anti-Semitic, and Swalwell, over a years-old story that a Chinese spy had sought to get close to him romantically.

This comes as McCarthy is being squeezed on all sides in his bid to secure the 218 votes necessary to become Speaker of the House. A group of five far-right Republicans have committed to vote as a bloc against him, which already leaves him short of the 218 mark; meanwhile, less extreme Republicans are also threatening to block the House rules package if it contains a planned procedural rule that would potentially allow hardliners who have backed his Speakership, like Greene, from forcing a vote to remove him at any time — an arrangement they fear would leave him completely in thrall to the far-right wing.