Johnson Gives House Intel A Maga Makeover

Speaker Mike Johnson is remaking the House Intelligence Committee in President-elect Donald Trump’s image, a shakeup with immense implications as the president-elect returns to power.

After ousting hawkish Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) as chair on Wednesday night, Johnson on Thursday installed the more MAGA-aligned Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) as lead Republican on the panel. He also added a passel of vocal Trump supporters to the committee’s lineup, tapping Reps. Ben Cline (Va.), Pat Fallon (Texas), Greg Steube (Fla.), Claudia Tenney (N.Y.) and Ann Wagner (Mo.).

The sea change on the panel is already triggering intense backlash from some Republicans on the committee and across the conference, who worry it’s a warning sign about the House’s willingness to stay independent of Trump. That’s to say nothing of Democrats, who fear the return of the partisan warfare that wracked the panel during Trump’s first term.

Unlike Turner, who has been an outspoken advocate for Ukraine funding and other muscular national security stances, Crawford is much more America First in his outlook. He opposed aid to Ukraine last year and was the only member of the Arkansas congressional delegation to oppose the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral win in 2021.

Crawford is also seen as a team player for the Trump cause. He gave up his Intelligence seat for a time to Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), a veteran partisan brawler, in the runup to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 so Republicans would have more firepower during televised hearings. He said at the time he wanted to “ensure the American people hear the full truth” amid allegations that Trump threatened to hold up military aid to Ukraine in exchange for political dirt on his political opponents.

POLITICO first reported Thursday that Johnson was planning to pick Crawford. Johnson and Turner met in the speaker’s office Wednesday night, in what many Republicans on the panel assumed was a gathering to discuss the panel’s new member list. Instead, Johnson informed Turner he was out.

Turner later told CBS News that Johnson said it was due to “concerns from Mar-a-Lago,” though there were other concerns internal to the House that might have weighed on Johnson.

First named to lead committee Republicans in 2022 by then-Leader Kevin McCarthy, Turner has made enemies on the MAGA right over his handling of key intelligence matters, including a major internal battle last year over renewing certain surveillance authorities that had been used to spy on Americans.

Conservative hard-liners grew enraged after Turner, they argue, tried to strong-arm them into backing the spy-powers bill by citing general “national security” implications. Crawford also supported renewing those powers but didn’t try to force hard-liners into conforming, according to one GOP lawmaker who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss internal conference dynamics.

The internal GOP war created a massive mess for Johnson, who was still fairly new to the speaker role at the time and trying to balance his rebellious conference’s dizzying demands.

“He’s the most senior member, he is highly qualified and has been doing great work on the committee for six years,” Johnson said as he left the Capitol on Thursday, denying that Freedom Caucus members had demanded Turner’s ouster.

“We have a lot of reform and restoration of trust that’s needed in the intelligence community, and I think he’s the perfect guy,” he added.

During Trump’s first term, under chairs Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and then Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the panel — officially the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — became a hotbed of partisan tensions. Republicans used the panel to root out alleged “deep state” enemies of Trump inside the intelligence community, while Democrats then made it the center of their first impeachment effort.

Among the new members Johnson added Thursday — he has plenary control as speaker over which Republicans sit on and lead the panel — none is known as a Trump critic. Wagner, who recently missed out on the House Foreign Affairs Committee gavel, has transformed herself into a staunch Trump ally after crossing him early in his rise.

Other Republicans were pushing for a slot but didn’t make the cut, including Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), who initially endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis against Trump in the last year’s presidential primaries.

Johnson’s move to remake the committee has unsettled a swath of his conference, especially centrists who backed Turner. Some GOP members have also raised questions about the other new members Johnson named to the panel, saying they had fewer qualifications than other Republicans who had been vying for the role.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a GOP defense hawk, said Turner “was doing a good job in most of our minds.”

“We’d like to know what happened, because we don’t know,” Bacon said. “But we don’t like it because we agree with him on Ukraine, we agree with him on [surveillance]. So did the speaker.”

“I think it’s divisive within the conference,” he added. “We probably should just know what the truth is, because some of the rumors out there are offensive.”

The House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), had often clashed with Turner on that panel but was nonetheless unnerved by the possibility that Mar-a-Lago machinations had been behind his ouster.

“Turner and I have gone at each other on a number of occasions, but he is a smart, competent guy who knows the intel community, and he’s done the job really well for two years now,” Smith said. “There is no reason to remove him from that leadership post based on his ability to run the committee.”

The implication, Smith said, is that Trump will wield more control over the House than any president in history.

“It sure as hell seems like Donald Trump said, ‘I don’t like that guy, get rid of him,’ and Mike Johnson said, ‘Yes, sir,’” Smith said.