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Here’s a bad thing that happened late yesterday, that portends just how awful and totalitarian things are about to get in Donald Trump’s America, even for Republicans if they dare deviate one inch from Dear Leader’s wishes.
If you’re familiar with GOP Rep. Mike Turner, it might be because you saw him on TV and briefly wondered who this sorta kinda sane Republican was. Of course, by debased Republican standards, he’s a statesman, but Turner at least comes across as a somewhat normal and stable human being.
And until yesterday, he was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. That is, until House Speaker Mike Johnson suddenly removed him — not just as chair but, according to the New York Times, “effectively” removes him from the committee entirely, “since his decade on the panel exceeds the six-year limit that applies to rank-and-file members.”
We tweeted on Bluesky when the news broke, “Hypothesis: Trump gave this order and Mike Johnson is a little piss-dribbling coward so he obeyed.” Are we psychic, or do we just have these losers’ number?
Johnson’s ostensible (wussy ass lie) excuse for removing Turner was that he wanted the Intel Committee to have a “fresh start” before Trump came in. Totally normal, if all the other committee chairs were being cycled out too, but they aren’t.
But Politico notes that MAGA simpletons in the House had wanted Turner fired for months, and reports that Johnson himself told Turner yesterday that this was about Trump. Turner told CBS’s Margaret Brennan that “concerns from Mar-a-Lago” caused his ouster, and Democratic committee ranking member Jim Himes, with whom Turner has had a collegial and productive working relationship, told Brennan this decision “just sends a shiver down my spine.”
But why do Trump and his taint-lickers in the House and their boss Vladimir Putin hate Turner so much? Haha, the answer lieth within the question! Because for one thing, Turner is one of the strongest Republican supporters of Ukraine in the entire Congress, cannot stand Putin, and is willing to name Russian propaganda where he sees it, even when he’s seeing it come out of the mouths of Republicans on the House floor.
If you were a compromised felon preparing to lie your way through the presidential oath of office and immediately start gnawing on Putin’s dick and betraying Ukraine, it’s probably a good idea to get a House Intel chair like Mike Turner out of the way before you put on your bib.
Heaven only knows what kind of trouble that guy might cause!
Turner was also super grossed out last month by revelations that Trump’s DOJ under Bill Barr spied on members of Congress, staffers, and journalists. Can’t have that in Stupid Hitler’s America, and by “that,” we mean Republicans with enough integrity left to object to surveillance of innocent people.
Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to pretend like he isn’t Trump’s sniveling little manservant, claiming that “This is not a President Trump decision; this is a House decision.” LOL, OK, buddy. Meanwhile, James Blair, a talking mouth from the Trump campaign, says it’s “false information” that Trump HEREBY ORDERED this. For sure, you betcha.
Back in April, Turner made news when he called out Republicans spreading Russian propaganda in the House of Representatives. “We see directly coming from Russia … communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” he told CNN.
He continued:
“There are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not,” he added.
“Of course it is not,” he said. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is a Putin stooge who thinks of course NATO is to blame for Russia’s war, of course. Can’t imagine she’d work well with a House intel chief who doesn’t have the proper respect for Trump’s and Gabbard’s real father in Moscow, or who doesn’t hate our allies and love our enemies.
Around the same time, Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had told Puck News that “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.” That’s what prompted Turner’s comments.
More from his CNN appearance back in April:
“[The propaganda] makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle, which is what it is,” Turner told CNN, adding, “President Xi of China, Vladimir Putin himself have identified as such.” […]
“I have to explain to them what’s at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest,” he said. “By the way, you don’t like Communist China? Well, guess what? They’re aligned [with Russia], along with the ayatollah [of Iran]. So when you explain it that way, they kind of start understanding it.”
Yeah, can’t have that in the United States of MAGA.
Bill Kristol (we know, it’s still weird to cite him as a regular source) ticks through some other reasons Trump might hate Turner at the Bulwark this morning, illustrating just how much the thin-skinned shitbaby in Palm Beach can’t handle the mildest threats to the inerrancy of his holy word:
Turner criticized Trump’s 2019 phone call with President Zelensky (though he voted against impeaching the president for the contents of that call). He voted to certify the 2020 election results (though he ended up supporting Trump’s reelection in 2024). He criticized Trump for calling January 6th convicts “hostages” and said that Trump’s taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago was “of grave concern.”
Perfectly reasonable assessments. Also, unacceptable to Trump.
And just in general, Turner has been a competent committee chair. Again, Jim Himes, hardly a Democrat unwilling to stand up and fight MAGA, is horrified by the ouster of his Republican counterpart.
Kristol points to a tweet from David Frum about the decision: “Knew too much, too patriotic, had to go.”
This is the America that starts Monday. Any Democrat in Congress who isn’t prepared to stand up and fight this every step of the way needs to sit the fuck down and let those who are do the talking.
And speaking of talking, we sure would like to hear more from Mike Turner right now.
Here’s that CNN appearance from Turner back in April:
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