(RepublicanDaily.org) – House Speaker Mike Johnson is getting flak for appointing a number of scandal-plagued Republicans to the House Intelligence Committee.
Johnson recently appointed GOP members Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry and Texas Representative Ronny Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee. Both are known close allies and loyalists of former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Perry was previously the chair of the Freedom Caucus, House’s hardcore conservative and right-wing faction, while Jackson used to be Trump’s doctor in the White House.
The decision has garnered sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle, not because of Perry’s and Jackson’s close association with Trump, but due to a host of other issues.
Perry is facing a number of legal issues due to his involvement in a number of actions related to Trump’s claims regarding the 2020 election.
On the other hand, Jackson is accused of creating a hostile work environment during his service at the White House, where he allegedly took sleeping pills, mistreated subordinates and staff, drank too much, and even sexually harassed a woman. He was also supposedly loose in dispensing prescription medication on Air Force One, in an attempt to curry favor with top officials. The Pentagon’s office of the inspector general conducted an investigation into the claims, and found that Jackson had ““disparaged, belittled, bullied and humiliated” subordinates. As a result, he was demoted from rear admiral to captain.
Johnson also drew the ire of the House Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Republican Ohio Representative Mike Turner, whom he did not consult before appointing Perry and Johnson to the committee. The committee has generally been non-partisan, and the appointment of two ardent Trump supporters has also raised concerns that the intelligence community will be much less forthcoming with the sensitive information they share with the committee in the future.
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