A couple of weeks ago, Speaker Mike Johnson appointed extremist and “underqualified” Republicans to the House Intelligence Committee. Therefore, many lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, were not happy with this move, and they have been quite vocal about it.
However, what many didn’t see coming was the return of a voice they didn’t expect to respond. This was the voice of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Johnson’s predecessor, who was ousted back in October 2023. The former speaker was a significant force out of many Republicans who were not pleased with Johnson’s move and needed an explanation for his appointment of Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX).
The former speaker had worked to depoliticize the panel, and the addition of two people who were Donald Trump’s close wingmen was undoing all of McCarthy’s previous efforts. One high-ranking Republican said that Johnson had reversed the course of the committee, making it political once more. To them, this was not a good move because the panel needed to stay depoliticized.
Those positions are high-ranking and very important to the country and could harm the preparedness of the U.S. in a critical situation. Therefore, they are not positions that should be tampered with or structures to appease one particular person, regardless of who it may be. The House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be a politics-free group where its members go to do “real, serious” work for the country.
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Therefore, many Republicans, including McCarthy, called out Johnson for an explanation for this sudden change. The current speaker explained to McCarthy and the others that he had appointed the two representatives majorly because Donald Trump had urged him to. However, this was not a good enough reason for the GOP lawmakers.
They believe that the executive branch should not have the power to compel the speaker of the House of Representatives or the legislature to put people who are underqualified in critical positions. The House Intelligence Committee usually gets briefings on highly classified and sensitive national security issues, and those on the committee should be politically neutral and serve the U.S. alone.
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Instead, they appointed two Republicans who seem to serve Trump more than the country itself. Rep. Perry played a very major role in Trump’s moves to overturn his loss in the 2020 election and was also found to be complicit in the Capitol riot. The second appointee, Rep Jackson, was Trump’s disgraced White House doctor.
He is a Texas congressman and also an avid supporter of Trump who would reportedly want to do the bidding of the ex-president at all costs. Therefore, Republicans are not happy with these choices at all, even though they are of the same party.
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Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) and Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) argued that this was a bad decision, and they all had to speak up to prevent worse things from happening in the future. Most people still have their concerns, but they will have to wait to see what will happen in the coming months.
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