House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing a fresh wave of criticism for not only booting Ohio Rep. Mike Turner (R) as the chair of the powerful House Intelligence Committee but also excluding him from the committee entirely.
In a scathing editorial late Thursday, the highly conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal took Johnson to task by adding that it has been reported that the move was made due to directions coming from Mar-a-Lago.
That, the editors asserted, portends a "troubling" future with Donald Trump pulling Johnson's strings making him no more than a puppet with no real authority over his caucus.
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As the editors wrote, "Mr. Turner has been one of Mr. Johnson’s main supporters in the GOP conference, so the Speaker is sending the wrong message about the rewards of loyalty. It’s one thing for the Speaker to let Mr. Trump dictate to him on policy. But control over House leadership should be the Speaker’s prerogative," they then added, "His ouster of Mr. Turner is a sign of weakness."
Worse still, they pointed out, the loss of Turner's expertise comes at a time when Trump wants to make inexperienced and controversial former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii his Director of National Intelligence.
"The House and Senate Intel Chairmen are checks on the CIA and the 17 other U.S. intelligence agencies. The committees can dig into intelligence findings by the director of national intelligence and ask pointed questions," the editors wrote before pointing out, "Mr. Turner’s sacking is all the more troubling given Mr. Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Ms. Gabbard cast doubt on whether Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons and has supported a pardon for Edward Snowden, the traitor who leaked highly classified documents and fled to Moscow for asylum."
Pointing out that a returning Turner would have been a check on Gabbard, the editors concluded that Speaker Johnson is endangering the country.
"Mr. Johnson is expected to replace Mr. Turner with Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, who voted against arming Ukraine last year. Perhaps he’ll rise to the role. But it’s alarming that Mr. Johnson is letting the GOP’s isolationist wing cashier one of his best committee chairs," they wrote.
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