Reportedly responding to “concerns from Mar-a-Largo”—Trump headquarters—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) abruptly fired Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) as the chair of the House Intelligence Committee on Jan. 15 and replaced him with Arkansas Republican Rick Crawford who, unlike Turner, had voted against funding for Ukraine and is a staunch “America First” proponent. Johnson said this decision had nothing to do with any displeasure over Turner’s chairmanship but was just an effort to bring in “new faces” for the new Congress. More likely, it was an effort to change the direction of Ukraine policy as Donald Trump has indicated he intends to do.
According to the New York Post May 16, as soon as he was named as the new chair, Crawford issued a strong statement echoing Trump’s concerns about the intelligence community. “I have witnessed firsthand that abuse within our nation’s security apparatus has eroded trust in our institutions and compromised America’s ability to gather intelligence,” he said. “As Chairman, I will aggressively uphold our mandate to provide credible and robust oversight of the Intelligence Community’s funding and activities.” As the Post noted, Democrats “erupted in fury’ over Turner’s ouster.