WASHINGTON – President Mike Johnson he said selected Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., to serve as the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, a day after Johnson made the surprising decision to remove Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, from the post.
Crawford has kept a low profile during his 14 years on Capitol Hill. In the last Congress, Crawford, a retired Army sergeant, was chairman of the Intelligence subcommittee that oversaw the Central Intelligence Agency. He was first elected in the Tea Party wave that brought Republicans to power in the House in 2010, and has been a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“Our intelligence community and its oversight must maintain the highest levels of trust. The House Intelligence Committee will play a critical role in this work in the new Congress, and Rick Crawford will provide principled leadership as its chairman “Johnson said in a statement. “He has earned the respect of his colleagues through his years of faithful service on the committee and his unwavering approach to the challenges facing our country.”
With the retirement last year of Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, Crawford was the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee after Turner. Two other high-profile Republican members of the panel who could have been in contention for the job are likely headed to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration: Rep. Elise Stefanik, R.N.Y., is his pick for United Nations ambassador, and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., is his pick to be national security adviser.
Politico was the first to report that Johnson was expected to name Crawford.
The top position on the Intelligence panel is one of the few positions chosen directly by the Speaker of the House at the start of a new Congress. Former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had originally named Turner as the ranking Republican on the committee in 2022, then named him chairman after the GOP regained the House majority that same fall. When Johnson succeeded McCarthy as president in October 2023, he kept Turner in office.
But Johnson told Turner on Wednesday that he would not continue to lead the committee in the 119th Congress.
The Intelligence Committee shakeup angered some members of the more moderate Republican Party’s Main Street Caucus, of which Turner is a member. A member of the group told NBC News that Johnson’s decision erodes trust and could complicate negotiations within the Republican conference as Republicans try to pass Trump’s policy agenda with a razor-thin majority.
“It seems like a secret policy and a stab in the back,” said one Main Street member, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
A second Republican lawmaker who spoke with Turner explained how the former president could make life difficult for Johnson, who is under pressure to deliver for Trump. Turner did not vote on Wednesday or Thursday.
“I think Turner will burn down the House,” this lawmaker said. “He’ll vote against everything. I mean, he just got totally screwed up.”
Turner, a defense hawk, is an outspoken supporter of NATO and aggressively pushed for the United States to help Ukraine in the last Congress, positions that conflicted with those of the incoming president. Turner also clashed with some far-right Republicans last spring when he led the effort to revamp a key surveillance tool known as FISA Section 702.
Crawford voted to reauthorize Section 702. But on April 20, Crawford joined more than 100 House Republicans in voting against approximately $60 billion in aid to help Ukraine’s war effort against Russia and its humanitarian needs. The Arkansas lawmaker voted to send aid to two other allies, Israel and Taiwan.
Addressing the shakeup on Thursday, Johnson rejected speculation that Trump or his allies in Congress had pressured him to oust Turner, calling it his own “very thoughtful decision.”
With the start of the new Congress, it was time for a “reset” because of “abuses” and concerns in the intelligence community, Johnson said, adding that he personally had no qualms with Turner.
“I have nothing but praise for Mike Turner. He did a great job as president under very difficult circumstances and we’re going to have new leadership there. And that’s what’s done on these select committees,” Johnson said. “The speaker sometimes changes leadership for a new season. It’s a new day in Washington, a new era. And I thought that made sense. “So I have nothing but praise and praise for President Turner for all the good work he did.”
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., an Iraq War veteran who does not serve on the Intelligence Committee, said he respected Johnson’s decision to install a president of his choice. And Mills said he believed the change was related to Turner’s role last year, where he aired an extraordinary statement calling on the White House to declassify information about an unidentified “serious national security threat,” a move Mills suspected was designed to drum up support for the 702 renewal.
Sources later described the threat as Russia’s development of a space nuclear weapon designed to attack American satellites, NBC News reported.
“Obviously, I respect his decision. I think a lot of that was preceded in [Turner]s]intentional leak that arose in this last Congress, with respect to Sputnik 2 and ideas of a possible violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,” Mills told reporters Thursday. “That was obviously … an effort to pressure the conference to vote in favor of FISA 702 reauthorization, which I am obviously vehemently against.”
In a statement Wednesday night, Turner said he was proud of the work he did on the Intelligence panel and remained supportive of NATO.
“Under my leadership, we restored the integrity of the Committee and returned its mission to its core focus on national security. The threat from our adversaries is real and requires serious deliberations,” Turner said in the statement.
“As ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, I have been and will continue to be a strong supporter of the military and our national defense,” he continued. “My work to expand the missions and capabilities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base continues. Additionally, I look forward to welcoming the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to Dayton in the coming months.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Turner’s dismissal “shameful.”
“Mike Turner is a thoughtful, thoughtful and principled leader whose work as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has been extremely impactful,” Jeffries said in a statement. “Throughout his time in the House of Representatives, President Turner has upheld his oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies and defended our national security interests.
“Mike Turner has steadfastly promoted the security of the American people and the free world, and his unjustified overthrow will likely be applauded by our adversaries in Russia and China. It is shameful,” Jeffries said.
