After House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., from the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday evening, the California representative took to TikTok to complain about the decision. On "Fox & Friends Weekend" Saturday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted the "reckless" congressman, not only for his behavior in the Intelligence Committee, but also for turning to the Chinese-based social media app that is the source of ongoing national security concerns.
WILL CAIN: So kicked off his committees and then there's an effort on behalf of Matt Gaetz to take away his access to classified information. Is that something that you would agree with and then what would be the case?
MIKE POMPEO: I do think that makes sense. In 'Never Give an Inch' I actually wrote about this long before that book was finished, long before Kevin McCarthy made what was, in fact, the right decision to remove him from the House Intelligence Committee. Look, I had served with Adam Schiff when I was a member of Congress on the Intelligence Committee. I'd seen the way he operated. And then when I was CIA director, I watched as we would provide information to them and it would end up in the press, either him or his staff or someone else sharing this information with the press. And then we can all see these last four years, him telling the story of the Russian hoax.
He said there's more information coming. I know stuff that you don't know, he told the American people. He abused his position on the committee, telling the American people he had secrets that he couldn't share with them. Well, the truth is, we now know that was all false. He had no secrets. He had to have known that he had no secrets. He put the Russian hoax on this country for two and a half years, and he shouldn't be anywhere near the Intelligence Committee in Congress.
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I think there ought to be an investigation when anyone leaks classified information or anyone tells people that they have classified information that they don't think they have. I think that's the appropriate role for folks to look into when the investigation is complete, the make the right decisions. The House has the authority to make all of the decisions that it needs. But you suggested something else. This is someone who has now shown he is reckless. I've said for almost half a decade now that TikTok needs to go away. It needs to be out of the U.S. He decided to share a major announcement on this Chinese Communist Party's intelligence apparatus, encouraging kids, young people, voters to go to TikTok to see him.
That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of American security. And I hope the voters of California, if he actually decides to run for the Senate, will reject him for this reason than others. But most importantly, I hope we will get to the bottom of this and make sure we don't have classified information in the wrong places. And Adam Schiff is someone who has shown he is not capable of handling this most sacred obligation.
