We recall very well that Representative Mike Turner (OH-10) was pretty much a no show during the years former House Intel Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes was battling the Deep State
to get to the bottom of who was involved in the weaponization of America’s intelligence assets against candidate and then President Donald Trump.
Nunes, and a few brave and loyal staff members, were left hanging out on their own by then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and most of the rest of the House GOP, who immediately became MIA when the Trump - Russia “collusion” hoax gathered steam. This left Trump and Nunes without allies among those Republicans most in the know about the fabricated FISA filings and a host of other intelligence asset abuses.
And the chief actor in the post-Obama promotion of the Trump – Russia collusion hoax and the chief protector of those behind it was Far Left Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked do-boy on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
So, knowing what he knows about how Adam Schiff operates and what his role in the hoax that tore the country apart for years and undermined the Trump presidency, why would Rep. Mike Turner go on national TV and make nice with Adam Schiff?
Appearing on CBS with Margaret Brennan, Turner walked through the priorities of the new HPSCI committee most of which seem to involve sending unlimited sums to Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion.
As our friends at the Conservative Treehouse noted, if you listen closely, you might even catch the part where Mike Turner says he is working swimmingly with current HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and current Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Democrat Mark Warner, another active participant in the Trump – Russia collusion hoax promotion and cover-up.
In our column “Fire Democrat Reps Schiff, Swalwell And Omar From Sensitive Committees” we made the case that Schiff shouldn’t even be on HPSCI once the GOP takes over the chamber:
We conservatives are all too aware of Adam Schiff’s record of abusing his position as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. However, a brief recap to refresh Kevin McCarthys’ memory may be in order.
National Review once described Schiff as “a standard-issue liberal California Democrat, habitually critical of Republicans and slow to criticize members of his own party, with exactly the positions one would expect from a congressman representing Hollywood.”
However, the election of Donald Trump changed Schiff into something much more dangerous – the central figure in creating and pursuing the phony Trump – Russia investigation and the chief prosecutor in the Trump impeachment saga, where he defied every constitutional standard in the effort to fabricate a case against then-President Trump.
Schiff went far beyond any existing norms of partisanship to leak and lie about President Trump often making bold-sounding accusations for which no evidence was ever produced.
And the only way he got away with it was to pretend his seat on the Intelligence Committee gave him access to secret information no one else had, take Schiff off the Intelligence Committee and his power to use real or imagined secret information to damage Republicans goes away.
So, why is Mike Turner, the presumptive Republican Chairman of HPSCI, making nice with the Far Left Democrat whom every conservative and sensible observer of national security and intelligence matters hopes will be gone from the Committee come January 3?
One reason is that it’s a “tell” that Kevin McCarthy has no intention of barring Schiff from serving on the Intelligence Committee.
Another possibility is that Turner has no problem with Schiff’s use of the government’s intelligence assets to attack and destroy Donald Trump, so he’s sending “Schifty” a message that everything is going to be OK and nothing is going to change on the Committee.
Which is exactly what conservatives feared when we heard that Mike Turner was Kevin McCarthy’s choice for HPSCI Chairman.
If Kevin McCarthy wants to prove to conservatives that he has the spine and the stones to lead a resurgent House Republican majority he could start by playing as tough with Democrats on their committee assignments as they did with Republicans, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was bounced from her committees merely for annoying Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats, not committing a security violation.
We urge conservatives to call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 ask for Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s office and tell him you demand that Democrat Adam Schiff be removed from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and if Mike Turner doesn’t like seeing his pal Adam Schiff bounced from the Committee, he needs to find someone tougher to replace Turner.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for former Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry former Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
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