The House Intelligence Committee is being given a makeover, with Republicans who are seen as more MAGA friendly replacing some other GOP members.
The committee was seen as one of the last bastions of old-school Republicanism in Congress before Trump ordered a reshuffle. The president-elect “personally got involved” in getting rid of Intelligence chair Mike Turner, a GOP lawmaker told the Daily Beast. Turner told his colleagues that Trump ordered House Speaker Mike Johnson to remove him in an act of personal revenge, sources told the Beast. The New York Times characterized the move as Johnson “bowing to Trump.”
“It’s a new Congress. We just need fresh horses in some of these places,” Johnson told reporters. Now the powerful committee will be headed by Rep. Rick Crawford.
The Arkansas Republican voted last year against legislation that would have sent billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. The ousted Turner was a vocal campaigner for more support for Ukraine.
Among the other Trump loyalists wheeled in are Ben Cline, a tough-talking border-obsessed Republican from Virginia, and shouty Texas Rep. Pat Fallon, who was recently accused of “invok[ing] 9/11 for political purposes.”
Reps. Greg Steube, Claudia Tenney, and Ann Wagner were also added to the new-look lineup. Steube posted an interesting take on X after the news of his new gig was announced. “I’m ready to take on the deep state and hold our weaponized intelligence agencies accountable,” he said. “Spying on Americans, including President Trump’s associates, is a blatant abuse of power.”
He also recently heaped praise on Trump’s role in Israel-Hamas negotiations and led a bill banning transgender athletes from women’s sports through the House.
Wagner, meanwhile, speaks fluent Trump. Still, the Missouri congresswoman has also voiced support for Ukraine and suggested in October that Trump favorites Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are “renegades” who could stymie the slim GOP House majority. (Gaetz has since resigned from Congress.)
And despite Wagner’s undoubtedly strong Trumpian credentials, she does have that old-fashioned national security bent. On X, she described the “new axis of evil,” namely China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, that the House Intel Committee will guard against.
Even still, committee member Dan Crenshaw told reporters “we all have questions and concerns” about the direction of the intel group,” while another anonymous Republican told Axios that “the vast majority of us are not happy with the decision” to replace Turner.
On the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the committee makeover is “likely being applauded by our adversaries in Russia and China. Shameful.”
Politico reported that Republicans on the committee “and across the conference... worry it’s a warning sign about the House’s willingness to stay independent of Trump.”
