Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday called out his fellow Republican Rep. Mike Turner as “incredibly irresponsible” for floating a cryptic and vague “threat” to America’s national security — just as the House was lining up a vote on a controversial military aid package to Ukraine.
“The game you are watching is not the game that is actually being played. I think it was incredibly irresponsible for [Turner] to gaslight the country, alleging this national security threat,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican said on his “Firebrand” podcast.
“There are real threats going on all the time that we want our committees and our congressmen focused on,” Gaetz continued. “But … I read the intelligence today, and while, of course, these types of things require us to keep an eye on them, it was not markedly different than other types of similar intelligence analysis.”
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Fox News reported on Wednesday that Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, demanded that President Joe Biden declassify the information about the unnamed threat so the nation could “openly discuss” how to respond.
Fox, citing a Pentagon official, added that the threat emerged from Russia and was “related to space.” The undisclosed menace could be of “grave seriousness potentially,” but that the threat was not imminent.
Still, CNN reported later that the Russians were working to “deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space,” but added that the weaponry is not something that “would be used to attack humans.”
At a briefing, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, “I saw Chairman Turner’s statement on the issue and I want to assure the American people, there is no need for public alarm. We are going to work together to address this matter, as we do all sensitive matters that are classified.”
“We just want to assure everyone: Steady hands are at the wheel, we’re working on it, and there’s no need for alarm,” he added.
On his podcast, Gaetz said the real question is: “Why?”
Read: Everything We Know About Ohio Rep. Mike Turner’s National Security Threat Warning
“Why were you gaslit? Why was there this big overarching claim of the imminency of some harm to the American people?
Gaetz noted that Turner’s pronouncement came “right on the heels” of Johnson and Hose conservatives stalling a vote on the Ukraine aid package, which also includes billions in funding for Israel and “humanitarian” aid for Gazans.
“You watch,” said Gaetz, “they’ll try to use the veneer of this threat to try to justify spying on you, spending your money, driving up prices, and being inflationary.”
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