One of the calls Johnson received was from former chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who felt he needed to understand the new chairman’s reasons for appointing Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, to the criticism committee, according to two people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
The nomination of Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) as intelligence director also raised concerns among some House Republicans, but not as much as Perry, because Jackson is not a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and is less likely to buck the GOP leadership.
The move was particularly surprising because Mr. McCarthy had been working with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and the committee’s top leaders, including Chairman Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) and Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-Conn.), to depoliticize the committee after years of members of both parties contributing to its growing partisanship.
In a call with McCarthy and other Republicans last week, Johnson justified his decision by saying he appointed Perry and Jackson at the request of former President Donald Trump, two other people with direct knowledge of the matter said. As president, Trump has unusually repeatedly denigrated the intelligence agencies, alleging they unfairly targeted him during the 2016 campaign and describing the Justice Department as “filthy and useless” during a meeting with House Republicans last week.
“[Johnson] “President Trump has reversed course on this committee and repoliticized it, reversing all of the progress that could have undermined American preparedness,” one senior Republican official said. “This is not the place to play games. This is not the place to appease anyone. This is where real work gets done.”
Johnson briefly explained his decision to The Washington Post, saying that “it’s important to have a wide range of perspectives on the committee” and that he believed both commissioners “will do a good job.”
The move came before President Trump rallied House Republicans on Capitol Hill last week to unite them behind a political and policy message that Republicans will take control of Washington in the November election. The move shows that Trump’s influence over House Republican leadership is already on display in a variety of ways. The far-right is increasingly likely to make demands on the speaker, especially as Johnson seeks to solidify support to continue leading a divided House of Representatives Republican Party.
Johnson and Trump It’s relatively close. The former president praised The speaker has been Johnson must stop hardliners from ousting him. The House has said it will step up scrutiny of the Justice Department after Trump became the first former president to be convicted last month.
“What I see in this case is the executive branch forcing the speaker and the legislative branch to fill two key positions that, frankly, there are much better qualified people out there,” said a House Republican on the Intelligence Committee.
The Intelligence Committee regularly receives classified briefings on sensitive national security issues affecting the country. Johnson has said he has changed his view on expanding aid to Ukraine since receiving the highest-level intelligence briefings as chairman, and has repeatedly encouraged skeptical Republicans to do the same. Turner and Himes urged Johnson to approve expanding aid to Ukraine after the committee received its classified report on the war in April.
“Even presidential candidates have been [sensitive compartmented information facility] “When you know the magnitude and the seriousness of the threats that we face as a nation and the ill will that our adversaries truly have toward us and our way of life, it’s often a game-changing experience. So there’s no need to worry here,” said Rep. Michael Walz (R-Fla.), a committee member.
Rep. Steve Womack (R-Arkansas), a conservative who said he respects the House as an institution, conveyed his concerns to Johnson, who said the speaker now “knows how I feel about the decision.” After hearing that Rep. David Joyce also had concerns, Johnson tried to appease the moderate Ohio Republican by saying the committee needed diverse perspectives and that the former president wanted to hear from members.
Mr Joyce was not convinced: “Why would you do the right thing by encouraging bad behaviour to appease such people?” he said.
Even Turner was not aware of Johnson’s decision until it was reported in the media.Republicans on the Intelligence Committee took the further step of requesting a face-to-face meeting with Johnson and expressing concerns that Jackson and Perry could harm efforts to make the committee less partisan.Tensions appear to have eased since the meeting, according to people who attended, and Republicans on the committee are hopeful that the seriousness of the job will change the new members’ perspective.
“We’ve got six months left until the end of the year, so we’ll see what the committee does in January,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), another member of the committee. “These two members are qualified to serve on the Intelligence Committee.”
The Speaker has the final say on who gets appointed to special or select committees, but the decision is often made in consultation with the Speaker and the ranking minority member. Members are assigned to standing committees based on each party’s steering committee, which is often made up of allies of the leadership.
Following the retirement of Republican Reps. Chris Stewart (Utah) and Mike Gallagher (Wisconsin), Reps. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) are reportedly seeking appointments to the committee.
Perry, a former chairman of the Freedom Caucus and a staunch Trump supporter, has received the most criticism from his colleagues over the appointment. One of about 20 House Republicans Last year, he refused to endorse McCarthy for chairman in an effort to extract concessions from him, including demands for more hardliners at the intelligence agency and removing Turner as chairman. Two people familiar with Mr. McCarthy’s thinking said he avoided it because he wanted to appoint honest members to the committee, and Mr. McCarthy has voted against the rules on several floors since Mr. Johnson became speaker.
Perry was also involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to witnesses who testified before a House committee on Jan. 6. The FBI seized Perry’s cellphone in 2022 as part of a Department of Justice investigation into efforts to overturn the election results.
Intelligence community members believe Perry’s attitude is more of a problem than his connection to January 6. The three lawmakers pointed to a statement Perry made after Johnson appointed him to the intelligence community, in which he said he looked forward to “not only providing a new perspective but also doing actual oversight, rather than blindly following parts of the intelligence community that too often abuse their power, resources and authority to spy on the American people.” Perry added in the video that he thought Johnson “wanted a different perspective on the committee.”
“I’m excited to see what their definition of true oversight is going to be compared to what we’ve done so far,” one council member said.
In contrast, Jackson’s statement was more complimentary of the committee, praising Turner’s role in helping “restore full confidence in the American people’s intelligence agencies.”
Jackson served as the White House physician under President Barack Obama. Trump has never challenged House leadership like Perry did, but the Navy demoted him from a retired rear admiral to a retired captain in 2022 after a Defense Department inspector general report found he bullied staff and engaged in other misconduct.
During the Intelligence Committee’s first meeting with its two new members on Tuesday, several lawmakers said Perry and Jackson were silent and uninterested. While other lawmakers walked out together, Perry walked out on his own, calling the first meeting “helpful.”
One intelligence official said Perry had been “getting into arguments with a couple of people” throughout the week, but then “tried to make amends and let us yell at him, which was a good thing.”
In a brief interview, Perry said he just wanted to “do his job” and was “excited to do my job and keep our country safe.” He knew there was a limit to what he could say. Given the tight-lipped nature of the committee, he said, “We have to be careful what we say here.”
Trump and his MAGA supporters in Congress oversees the CIA, FBI, and other agencies; Members are briefed on classified intelligence matters, and Perry and other hardline lawmakers recently voted against a partial reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, arguing that the agencies actively spy on Americans despite laws prohibiting them from doing so.
Several House Republicans remain cautiously optimistic about the speaker’s decision.
“There’s no question that the agencies and the Department of Justice are fighting a legal battle against Donald Trump, so I don’t blame him for appointing one of his loyalists to the Intelligence Committee,” said Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.), suggesting the Biden administration is using the legal system and government agencies to attack Trump. “I think there are a lot of loyalists in the party and we should put the best qualified people there.”
But his intelligence appointments and the appointment of Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), a member of the Freedom Caucus, to the House Armed Services Committee deeply angered the faction of Republicans who want a more functional House, the so-called ruling faction. Many fear that including hardline views could mean important bills cannot get a vote on the floor, and the House of Representatives could become dysfunctional, as the far-right has done in the past.
Many pragmatic conservatives, who spoke freely and anonymously, worry that placing hard-line colleagues in the intelligence department would follow a pattern seen on other major committees: The House Appropriations Committee’s liberal caucus included extreme provisions in a budget bill last year that moderates couldn’t support on the floor, while three hard-line senators on the House Rules Committee blocked a floor vote on a border security bill earlier this year in protest of Johnson’s leadership of a foreign aid package.
But members of the far right and many rank-and-file conservatives aren’t concerned.
“My overall response to disgruntled colleagues is, ‘So what? That’s not your decision,'” said Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, noting that Johnson’s decision-making style is deliberative.
For more than a decade, members of the Liberal caucus have been calling for their views to be better represented. House Their obstructionism and all-or-nothing negotiating style have influenced Republican leaders to bend their ways in many ways as they draw closer to Trump.
“I think we can have an important voice on the committee and have mutual respect, but I come from a background that’s not typical on the committee,” Higgins said. “I think it’ll be a great marriage.”
