WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned he chosen Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., to function the following chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, someday after Johnson made the gorgeous choice to oust Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, from the function.
Crawford has maintained a low profile throughout his 14 years on Capitol Hill. In the final Congress, Crawford, a retired Army sergeant, was chairman of the Intelligence subcommittee that oversaw the Central Intelligence Agency. He was first elected within the Tea Party wave that swept Republicans into energy within the House in 2010, and has been a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“Our intelligence group and its oversight should preserve the very best ranges of belief. The House Intel Committee will play a pivotal function on this work within the new Congress, and Rick Crawford will present principled management as its chairman,” Johnson mentioned in a press release. “He has earned the respect of his colleagues by way of his years of devoted service on the committee and his regular method to the challenges dealing with our nation.”
With the retirement final yr of Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, Crawford was essentially the most senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee after Turner. Two different high-profile GOP members of the panel who may have been in rivalry for the job are doubtless heading to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration: Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is his decide for United Nations ambassador, and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., is his decide to be nationwide safety adviser.
Politico was first to report that Johnson was anticipated to call Crawford.
The prime submit on the Intelligence panel is without doubt one of the few positions instantly chosen by the speaker of the House in the beginning of a brand new Congress. Former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had initially named Turner the rating Republican on the committee in 2022, then named him chairman after the GOP took again the House majority later that fall. When Johnson succeeded McCarthy as speaker in October 2023, he saved Turner within the function.
But Johnson instructed Turner on Wednesday he wouldn’t proceed main the committee within the 119th Congress.
The shake-up on the Intelligence Committee infuriated some members of the extra average GOP Main Street Caucus, of which Turner is a member. One member of the caucus instructed NBC News that Johnson’s choice erodes belief and will complicate negotiations inside the GOP convention as Republicans attempt to go Trump’s coverage agenda with a razor-thin majority.
“Looks like backroom politics and backstabbing,” mentioned one Main Street member, who was granted anonymity to talk candidly.
A second GOP lawmaker who spoke to Turner spelled out how the previous chairman may make life tough for Johnson, who’s below strain to ship for Trump. Turner didn’t vote Wednesday or Thursday.
“I feel Turner will burn the House down,” this lawmaker mentioned. “He will likely be a no vote on all the things. I imply, he simply acquired completely f—–.”
Turner, a protection hawk, is an outspoken supporter of NATO and aggressively pushed for U.S. support for Ukraine within the final Congress — positions that had been in battle with the incoming president. Turner additionally clashed with some hard-right Republicans final spring when he led the cost to resume a key surveillance device often called FISA Section 702.
Crawford voted to reauthorize Section 702. But on April 20, Crawford joined greater than 100 different House Republicans in voting in opposition to roughly $60 billion in support to assist Ukraine’s warfare effort in opposition to Russia and its humanitarian wants. The Arkansas lawmaker voted in favor of sending support to 2 different allies, Israel and Taiwan.
Addressing the shake-up Thursday, Johnson batted down hypothesis that Trump or his allies in Congress had pressured him to oust Turner, calling it his personal “very considerate choice.”
With the beginning of the brand new Congress, it was time for a “reset” due to the “abuses” and considerations within the intelligence group, Johnson mentioned, including that he had no qualms with Turner personally.
“I’ve nothing however reward for Mike Turner. He did an incredible job as chairman below very tough circumstances, and we’re simply going to have new management there. And that’s what you do in these choose committees,” Johnson mentioned. “The speaker generally modifications out management for a brand new season. It’s a brand new day in Washington, a brand new period. And I simply thought that made sense. So I give nothing however reward and commendation to Chairman Turner for all the nice work he did.”
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., an Iraq warfare veteran who doesn’t serve on the Intelligence Committee, mentioned he revered Johnson’s choice to put in a md of his selecting. And Mills mentioned he believed the change was associated to Turner’s function final yr the place he issued an extraordinary statement calling on the White House to declassify details about an unnamed “critical nationwide safety risk” — a transfer Mills suspected was designed to drum up help for 702 renewal.
Sources later described the risk as Russia’s development of a space-based nuclear weapon designed to focus on U.S. satellites, NBC News reported.
“Obviously, I respect his choice. I feel that lots of that was prefaced on [Turner]s] intentional leak that got here out this final Congress, with reference to Sputnik 2 and the concepts of a possible violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,” Mills instructed reporters Thursday. “That was clearly … an effort to place strain on the convention to vote for FISA 702 reauthorization, which clearly I’m vehemently in opposition to.”
In a press release Wednesday night time, Turner mentioned he was happy with the work he completed on the Intelligence panel and stood by his help of NATO.
“Under my management, we restored the integrity of the Committee and returned its mission to its core focus of nationwide safety. The risk from our adversaries is actual and requires critical deliberations,” Turner mentioned within the assertion.
“As a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, I’ve been and can proceed to be a powerful advocate for the navy and our nationwide protection,” he continued. “My work to develop missions and capabilities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base continues. Furthermore, I look ahead to welcoming the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to Dayton within the coming months.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., slammed Turner’s ouster as “shameful.”
“Mike Turner is a critical, considerate and highly-principled chief, whose work as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee has been extraordinarily impactful,” Jeffries mentioned in a press release. “Throughout his time within the House of Representatives, Chairman Turner has upheld his oath to help and defend the Constitution in opposition to all enemies and championed our nationwide safety pursuits.
“Mike Turner has robustly promoted the security of the American folks and the Free World and his unjustified ouster is probably going being applauded by our adversaries in Russia and China. Shameful,” Jeffries mentioned.
