House Speaker Mike Johnson booted Rep. Mike Turner as Chairman of the House Intel Committee at Trump’s request, WaPo reported.
Update: Trump’s team says Trump did not request Mike Johnson oust Mike Turner.
False information. https://t.co/PxY0rjy1rw
— James Blair (@JamesBlairUSA) January 16, 2025
“Speaker Mike Johnson has removed Mike Turner as chair House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, three people familiar with the decision tell POLITICO. Turner has been an outspoken advocate for Ukraine funding and other hawkish national security stances.” – Politico reported.
Tension between Speaker Johnson and Mike Turner has been simmering for nearly a year.
Last February, Mike Turner desperately sounded the alarm about a vague ‘serious national security threat’ after Speaker Johnson killed a Senate bill with Ukraine aid.
According to a leak to CNN, the threat was supposedly “related to Russia.”
“Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence characterized it as “very sensitive,” CNN reported last year.
“One of the sources who has seen the intelligence confirmed that “it is, in fact, a highly concerning and destabilizing” Russian capability “that we were recently made aware of.”” the outlet reported.
The House Intel Committee made the announcement shortly after Speaker Mike Johnson shut down the Senate aid bill which allocated billions of dollars to Ukraine.
Statement from Chairman @RepMikeTurner: pic.twitter.com/OA9yJuEPlf
— House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) February 14, 2024
THE TIMING WAS SUSPICIOUS.
Shortly before Mike Turner sounded the alarm on some vague threat, he traveled to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The United States is working diligently in the House of Representatives and the Senate to secure the funding that is necessary in 2024,” Turner told reporters at a presser in Kiev last February.
After returning from a trip to Kiev, Rep. Mike Turner aggressively pushed Mike Johnson to step it up and bring the Senate aid bill to the floor for a vote ASAP.
“We have to get this done,” Mike Turner said claiming there was not a moment to spare because Ukraine is running out of munitions. “This is no longer an issue of, ‘When do we support Ukraine?’ If we do not move, this will be abandoning Ukraine.”