Chairman Mike Johnson on Wednesday removed Rep. Michael R. Turner of Ohio from leading the House Intelligence Committee, intending to bring the vital National Security Committee into closer alignment with President-elect Donald J. Trump. suggested.
Mr. Turner, who emerged from a meeting with the chairman Wednesday afternoon looking furious, told people that Mr. Johnson had told him that his firing was the result of a request from Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. It was reported that he said. Someone familiar with those conversations.
The president-elect has long been suspicious of the intelligence community, claiming its members are part of a politicized “deep state” targeting him. Mr. Johnson appeared to be clearing the way for the president-elect to gain tighter control over the committees that oversee intelligence matters by removing Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump.
Turner, a mainstream conservative who has represented southwest Ohio in the House of Representatives for more than 20 years, has occasionally criticized Trump's actions. He broke with the party majority on January 6, 2021, and voted to certify Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s 2020 election. He was also a major supporter of Ukraine's fight against Russia, breaking with the “America first” attitude of the president-elect and many in his party.
Johnson denied on Wednesday that Trump was behind the decision to strip Turner of his chairmanship.
“This is not President Trump's decision. This is the House's decision,” Johnson told reporters on his way out of the Capitol on Wednesday night, adding that he had “nothing but positive things to say” about Turner. .
He said the committee “needs a fresh start and that is the purpose of this time, nothing else.”
Mr Johnson's spokesman declined to say who he plans to appoint to replace Mr Turner, but an announcement could be made as early as tomorrow.
By removing Turner as chairman, Johnson effectively kicked Turner off the committee entirely. His 10-year term on the commission exceeds the six-year limit that applies to rank-and-file members. He became the Republican ranking member of the Intelligence Committee in 2022 and became chairman the next year after Republicans won a majority.
Mr Johnson is now in a position to further restructure the panel. The impending departures of New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Florida Rep. Michael Walz, who are expected to join the Trump administration, and other members who have reached term limits, will create further vacancies. .
The chairman has a track record of appointing Trump supporters to committees. Last year, he backed Mr. Turner by appointing Mr. Trump's former White House physician, Ronnie Jackson of Texas, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a former leader of the House Freedom Caucus, to the House of Representatives. It blinded me.
Both men are outspoken allies of Trump, but Turner has made several critical comments about the president-elect. He criticized Trump's 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which he pressured the president to investigate the Biden family.
“I want to say to the president, this is wrong,” Turner said during an Intelligence Committee hearing. “That conversation is no good.”
He also disputed Trump's claim that those jailed for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were “hostages,” but that Trump directed his supporters to attack Congress. He claimed that there was no. He also said in a television interview that Trump's decision to store classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office was “gravely concerning” and that, like the allegations about Biden's handling of classified documents, “they are just as egregious.” ” he said.
Mr Turner and Mr Johnson are also at odds on a number of policy areas. The two sides disagreed sharply over the wisdom of continuing military aid to Ukraine, which Mr. Turner advocated and Mr. Johnson resisted.
They also appear to be at odds over how to update Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which legalized a type of warrantless surveillance program launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The intelligence community claims that the program: It has helped protect the United States from terrorist attacks, but many of Trump's allies say it has been used to spy on conservatives.
Mr. Turner will bring to the Intelligence Committee the spirit of bipartisanship that was undermined during Mr. Trump's first term under former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and former Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D). He was highly praised by his Democratic Party colleagues for reinstating it. The California congressman, now a senator, often clashed with him.
The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, told reporters Wednesday night that Turner's firing “chills down my spine.”
“The firing of Speaker Turner makes our country less secure and is a terrible omen for what's to come,” he said in a statement afterward. The Constitution requires Congress to act as checks and balances on the executive, rather than responding to its demands. ”
Karl Hulse Contributed to the report.
