At Crawford, Johnson chooses an Intel chair with “America First” tendencies.

By electing Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) chair the House Intelligence CommitteeSpeaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has tapped a veteran conservative with “America-First” leanings to lead one of the most powerful panels heading into Trump’s second administration.

Crawford, a 14-year veteran of Capitol Hill, voted last year against legislation providing billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. quotingmore serious needs at home. The vote aligns him with Trump and his allies, who have sought to divert U.S. resources away from foreign entanglements and devote those energies to domestic economic problems.

Crawford also voted in 2021 to challenge the presidential election results in both Pennsylvania and Arizona, where Trump was defeated but nevertheless claimed victory.

Both positions — Ukraine and the 2020 election — mark a stark contrast to the track record of Rep. Mike Turner, the Ohio Republican who chaired the Intelligence Committee in the last Congress, but now he is without a hammer.

Turner, now in his 23rd year in Congress, fits the more traditional mold of Reagan-era conservatism, including support for expanding government surveillance powers, maintaining strong ties to NATO allies and helping Ukraine to repel the invasion of Russia. Those positions have put him at odds with Trump’s “America First” agenda and made him a target of some of the incoming president’s MAGA supporters.

Turner was also among the minority of House Republicans who voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania and Arizona four years ago.

Crawford has flown largely under the radar during his seven terms in the House, but now he heads a committee that will spearhead efforts to defend the country against threats, foreign and domestic, in an era of ‘cyber attacks. , hacks, disinformation and artificial intelligence technologies that are increasingly difficult to defend against.

Johnson, who has the unilateral power to appoint the chairman of Intel, has defended his decision to remove Turner’s gavel and appoint Crawford, rejecting the idea that it arose as a result of pressure to appease the incoming president.

“This is not a Mar-a-Lago decision or a Trump decision, this is a President’s decision,” Johnson told reporters Thursday at the Capitol.

“A lot of thought goes into these things,” he continued. “The Intel board is extremely important, especially at a time like this, and it’s time for a fresh start.”

Johnson has suggested that his decision was motivated, at least in part, by an episode last year when Turner warned of a serious threat to US security, an incident that seemed to catch Johnson off guard.

“There’s been a lot of controversy, as everybody knows, about things related to the Intelligence Committee … and abuses and things and a lot of allegations over the last few years,” Johnson said. “We have to clean all this up.”

But Turner’s removal has, too prompted a backlash from Democrats — and at least a few Republicans — who accuse Johnson of bowing to Trump’s wishes at the expense of national security. Those voices have long criticized Trump for being too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin and saw Turner as an ally in the effort to roll back Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and beyond.

“Mike Turner has vigorously promoted the security of the American people and the free world and his unwarranted ouster will likely be applauded by our adversaries in Russia and China,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday (DN .Y.) in a statement.

“Embarrassing.”

Crawford, who last April voted against nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, said he supported Ukraine’s efforts to expel Putin’s “invasion force” but could not support to non-military aid to Kiev “as Americans struggle with rising costs at home.”

On other issues related to the Intel Committee, however, Crawford has sided with Turner, even as other conservatives in the House called for a different approach.

Crawford, for example, has supported renewing a controversial law that empowers the government to monitor the communications of foreigners while abroad. That law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), has long been criticized by conservatives on Capitol Hill, who say it gives the government too much power to capture data on American citizens.

Many of those critics are members of the House Freedom Caucus and are among Trump’s staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill.

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