New Chair's Views Are Closer to Trump's

After removing Rep. Mike Turner as chair of the House Intelligence Committee the day before, Speaker Mike Johnson replaced him Thursday with a Republican more aligned with the views of President-elect Donald Trump. Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford has cast House votes against aid to Ukraine, the New York Times reports, while the ousted Rep. Mike Turner had been heavily involved in keeping the assistance flowing. Turner also has criticized Trump occasionally and voted to certify President Biden's election victory in 2020, while Crawford did not.

Democrats and some Republicans have ripped the removal of Turner, who has a reputation for bipartisanship. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the move "shameful." A member of the more moderate GOP Main Street Caucus told NBC News that the shakeup erodes trust and could hurt intraparty negotiations over Trump's priorities. Another Republican warned that Johnson, who's working with the thinnest of House majorities, might have just turned Turner into a "no" vote on the new president's agenda. Johnson again rebutted accusations that Trump was behind the change in chairmen, saying it was his own "very thoughtful decision."

"Rick Crawford will provide principled leadership" as chairman, Johnson said in his announcement. Crawford, who was first elected in the Tea Party surge in 2010, said he will be a check on the intelligence community. "Without aggressive oversight and vigorous protection of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights, the IC is prone to give in to mission creep and skirt US laws," he said in a statement, per the Times. Johnson had already begun changing the committee to more reliably reflect Trump's views by putting Reps. Ronny Jackson, who was Trump's White House physician, and Scott Perry, who had led the House Freedom Caucus, on it. (More House Intelligence Committee stories.)