House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California accused Democrats of operating on a double-standard in an impassioned speech on the House floor Wednesday.
Lawmakers in the lower chamber voted to censure GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona over a cartoon video he tweeted depicting himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and then going to attack President Joe Biden.
Gosar was stripped of his committee assignments in a 223-207 vote - and McCarthy strongly hinted that a handful of Democrats will see the same fate.
In his speech ahead of the vote this afternoon McCarthy listed off five outspoken Democrats - including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Reps. Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff of California - whose committee assignments could be on the chopping block if his party takes back the House in 2022.
McCarthy said of Democrats' tenure in the majority, 'What they have started cannot easily be undone. Their actions today and the past have forever changed the way the House operates.'
'It means that the minority rights that have served this body as well are the things of the past. And furthermore, it means that under the Pelosi precedent, all of the members that I have mentioned earlier will need the approval of a majority to keep those positions in the future,' he hinted.
'The old definition of abuse of power- rules for thee but not for me. That's exactly what's happening here today,' McCarthy began.
McCarthy railed against Pelosi and other House lawmakers in an impassioned speech ahead of the Gosar censure vote
He accused Democrats of taking away focus from more urgent national issues like the southern border crisis and record-setting inflation and said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attempting to 'burn down the House on her way out the door.'
'What's worse, we got to this point on the basis of a double-standard,' the GOP leader said. 'Democrats want to change the rules but refuse to apply them to their own caucus.'
Without naming any of them McCarthy singled out Waters, Omar, Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff of California, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York for failing to meet the 'high standards' he claimed Democrats were holding Gosar to.
Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, had previously sparked outrage when she encouraged crowds to
