Rep. Jackson Lee Slams McCarthy’s Leadership: ‘Democrats Are Going To Be the Adults in the U.S. Congress’
Lawmaker takes aim at presumptive next Republican speaker
Another senior Democrat is taking aim at the leadership of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is angling to become speaker of the House once Republicans claim their narrow majority in January.
Rep Sheila Jackson Lee — U.S. representative for Texas's 18th congressional district which includes most of central Houston and has served since 1995 — is the latest to question McCarthy as he attempts to ascend to lead the House next year.
It comes less than two weeks after outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed McCarthy's ability to succeed her.
Specifically, Jackson Lee criticized McCarthy's stated intention to remove several outspoken Democrats from their committee assignments in the next Congress.
“Let me just say, Democrats are going to be the adults in the United States Congress. They are going to focus on legislation, but we are going to fight and defend our members. And the reason why we have good grounds to stand on, because the premise that McCarthy is utilizing is tit-for-tat and vengeance,” Jackson Lee said. “His vengeance is the wrong direction because the members who had their committees removed threatens the life of another member and the president of the United States. That is what Congressman [Paul] Gosar did with a cartoon that showed the murdering of Congresswoman Cortez and knives towards the president. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, and antisemitic, anti-Muslim [comments], had indicated that the Pentagon was not hit by a plane in 9/11 and that there was a threat or threaten the lives of Democratic leadership. That is about death, that is about loss of life, that is violence.”
Members like Democratic Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, are entitled to their policy views, according to Jackson Lee, who added that she will fight to keep her colleagues on their committees.
Removal of any member of Congress from their committee assignments requires a majority vote in the House, a level which might prove difficult given the very narrow margin Republicans will have in the new Congress.
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