Intelligence chairman faces blowback from Republican colleagues over national security threat statement

By Melanie Zanona, Haley Talbot and Annie Grayer

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner is facing sharp criticism – including from within his own party – as some GOP lawmakers are complaining that a statement the Ohio Republican made Wednesday was alarmist, “constituted poor judgement” and should be investigated.

Some of Turner’s colleagues believe he was drawing attention to a Russian threat to build support for Ukraine aid and others believe it was his effort to push for his version of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act overhaul that was facing a vote later in the day.

“It’s f***ing bullsh*t,” one prominent House Republican told CNN of Turner’s move. “He ought to lose his job. He did that to get his way on FISA.”

Others were just as unnerved by the move.

“I don’t know what his motives were it just to me, it just looks bad,” Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Another Tennessee Republican, Rep. Andy Ogles, sent a scathing letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday calling for an investigation into Turner for his vague statements, calling his disclosure “reckless” and asserting he disregarded of the consequences.

“This act constituted poor judgement at a minimum and a complete breach of trust influenced by the pursuit of a political agenda at a maximum … it is with great reticence that I formally request an inquiry as to any impact the Chairman’s statements may have had on U.S. foreign and domestic policy,” Ogles wrote.

CNN has reached out to Johnson for comment on the letter.

Not long after Turner released his statement warning of a “serious national security threat,” Johnson arranged a last-minute news conference in the Capitol to make clear there’s “no need for public alarm” and clarifying he had already requested a briefing on the matter a month ago.

Turner did not give the House speaker’s office a heads up prior to making his public statement characterizing the matter as a “serious national security threat,” according to a source familiar with the matter. Turner did, however, inform Johnson he would be requesting that the Biden administration declassify information about the threat, another source said.

GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, a member of the Intelligence Committee, defended Turner’s actions and blasted members who want him investigated.

Asked about the letter from Ogles, Crenshaw said, Ogles “needs to f***ing check himself.”

“He doesn’t know what he is talking about,” Crenshaw said. “It’s absurd. It’s a deeply absurd action. I am tired of people making extremely passionate, opinionated actions based on no knowledge.”

Asked about some of the theories members are floating that Turner was using his position to try and drum up support for Ukraine aid and other theories as to why Turner released the statement, Crenshaw said the timing was just coincidence.

“It’s coincidence,” he said. “There was notifications from the intelligence community that made it just clearer now than before. This was just the time.”

Turner issued a statement defending his decision to make the national security threat available to members, but the statement does not address why Turner decided to make his statement public, which has caused backlash.

Turner said he worked with the Biden administration to notify Congress about the national security threat and that the administration cleared his statement with the top Democrat on the panel before it got sent to lawmakers. The committee voted on Tuesday to release the information to lawmakers, and Turner said that vote was 23-1.

Turner’s initial statement came hours before the House was scheduled to take a vote related to reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a vote that was later postponed due to opposition from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members had been pushing for amendment votes. Members of the Freedom Caucus later tanked a procedural vote on unrelated legislation Wednesday evening.

Ogles tied Turner’s statement to trying to drum up support for passing the FISA package.

“In hindsight, it has become clear that the intent was not to ensure the safety of our homeland and the American people, but rather to ensure additional funding for Ukraine and passage of an unreformed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).”

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz accused Turner of “gaslighting the country” about the seriousness of the security threat members were briefed on Thursday in order to promote Ukraine funding.

“We put out our concern with Chairman Turner gaslighting the country on these things,” Gaetz told CNN’s Manu Raju.

“I worry that the motivation to draw so much attention to this is less about intelligence and national security and more about a politician who wants to send $60 billion to Ukraine,” he said, “and wants to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that we want to see substantially curtailed because of the spying abuses.”

CNN reported Wednesday that the US has new intelligence on Russian military capabilities related to its efforts to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence. The intelligence was briefed to Congress and key US allies, and some lawmakers say it is serious enough that it should be declassified and made public.

One Democratic member with deep national security experience said Wednesday that they had never before received that kind of urgent summons over a national security matter during their time in Congress — and that the intelligence they saw when they arrived was not urgent enough to justify Turner’s comments.

CNN’s Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.