After losing the leadership race, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) overtook Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) to become the Senate intelligence leader, despite Cotton's seniority on the committee. He tried to take the top position on the committee.
Cornyn's move was discussed among Senate Republicans, Politico reportsaid a party official.
Seniority is sacrosanct in the old-fashioned Senate system, where tenure is valued over ability and expertise when awarding the gavel to valuable committees.
However, unlike a standing committee, the Select Committee on Information is an elected committee. The committee's membership is rotating and includes certain requirements “intended to reflect the bipartisan nature of intelligence operations and encourage the committee to operate in a bipartisan manner.” According to to the committee.
Importantly, the committee's two leaders are chosen, or “chosen,” by Senate leaders from each party.
New Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), who just defeated Mr. Cornyn 29-24 for the Republican leadership in the second vote, ultimately replaced the current top Republican, Sen. John Thune. The next Congress will decide who will chair the committee. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) has been nominated as Secretary of State.
The leadership race was decided by secret ballot, but Cotton has openly supported Thune over Cornyn, apparently giving Thune an incentive to promote Cotton (who has been on the committee longer than Cornyn). .
But the establishment-leaning Mr. Cornyn is up for re-election in 2026. Cornyn has said he plans to run for a fifth term in the Senate since his failed leadership bid, but that could change if he loses the Intel committee chair. This is likely influencing Cornyn's decision to face a difficult conservative challenger in the primary, likely Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, an ally of Donald Trump. That's going to happen.
By giving Cornyn the committee gavel, Mr. Thune could induce Mr. Cornyn to stay on course for re-election, allowing a conservative outsider in Mr. Trump's mold to emerge in 2027 and make friends. This would reduce the possibility of challenging the current status quo in the Senate.
Politico reports:
Giving Mr. Cornyn, a 72-year-old former judge who is popular with his colleagues, control of the committee that oversees the country's intelligence operations would be in both parties' interests, according to two Republican officials briefed on the discussions. It was believed that it would bring about He will claim a key position at a time of conflict abroad and tensions between intelligence and law enforcement agencies at home. And Cotton is not without an important post after winning last month for conference chairman, the No. 3 spot in Senate Republican leadership.
But Cotton, who won the Senate Republican Conference chairman's race in November over Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), is unlikely to surrender quietly.
Politico reported, “Mr. Cornyn asked Mr. Cotton last month to take his temperature for the post after the leadership election, but when asked by Republican senators, Mr. Cotton responded, “I will be the chairman.'' . He added: “I have heard that Arkansans have already begun hiring staff, but that they have refused to be persuaded to leave the chair to Cornyn, which will be vacated by Rubio's appointment as Secretary of State.”
A representative for Cornyn declined to comment to the magazine.
Cotton's spokeswoman, Caroline Tabler, told Politico that “Senator Thune has informed Senator Cotton that he will be taking over as chair.” He's hiring staff, working with Sen. Rubio on the transition, and making plans with senators. [Mark] Warner (D-VA), set for confirmation hearing in January. ”
Mr. Cotton's determination to hold on to the key post is certainly a disappointment for Mr. Cornyn, who once served as chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and was once promoted to assistant to the Republican leader. However, after six years in the position, he was forced to leave the position due to Republican term limits requirements. In January 2019, Mr. Thune replaced Mr. Cornyn as Mr. McConnell's deputy, but he used that position to overtake Mr. Cornyn and rise to the top job.
Although Cornyn has been a senator since 2022, he has never chaired a committee. The Texas lawmaker could become the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee in 2027, but only if he runs and wins.
Since entering the Wilderness era, Cornyn has leveraged his relationships on both sides of the aisle to serve as a bipartisan dealmaker of sorts, especially under President Joe Biden's administration.
He played a key role in ensuring the passage of Biden's gun control legislation, including the “red flag” law, in 2022, and a key behind-the-scenes role negotiating the Senate's pro-immigration bill in 2023. I accomplished it.
The immigration bill was intended by McConnell and a bipartisan group of senators to serve as a key component of a compromise that would allow for tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. However, Republican support for the bill evaporated after its contents were leaked. Most notoriously, the bill would allow up to 8,500 migrants a day to cross the border without triggering a state of emergency.
President Trump opposed the bill, knowing it would handcuff future administrations' border security capabilities.
Mr. Cornyn's record attracted bipartisan attention in the Senate (though not enough to beat Mr. Thune among Republicans). But in 2024, Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stormed the Texas Republican primary, emboldening conservatives and depressing long-held Democratic hopes of turning the state blue. It is unlikely to be in his favor.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will play an important role in the next Congress.
President Trump is calling for an overhaul of the malign intelligence agencies he has credibly accused of spying on his presidential campaign and other crimes. Congressional intelligence committees will play a key role in advancing reform.
But the Senate committee and its House committees serve more as guardians of the intelligence state than their oversight committees, and reformers argue that the committee's members monitor the intelligence community's activities. They say their priorities are to protect against intelligence agencies and to strengthen the already vast powers of intelligence agencies (and their intelligence agencies). bureaucracy).
Mr. Trump is likely to want an ally to lead each committee. Mr. Cornyn has long made clear his disapproval of Mr. Trump, but the Texas native worked to improve relations in the months leading up to the leadership race.
The Senate Intelligence Committee was established in 1976 in response to a series of consequential failures within the intelligence community that jeopardized national security. It grew out of the Church Committee, an ad hoc Senate committee led by Sen. Frank Church and aimed at exposing illegal activities committed by the Central Intelligence Agency in coordination with the Department of Defense and the State Department.
However, since the commission's creation, intelligence agencies have played a key role in launching the United States into foreign wars and other overseas operations based on selective or fabricated information. After nearly half a century, the intelligence community occupies a more secure and powerful position within the federal government than ever before.
If President Trump wants true Congressional oversight of the country's intelligence, reforming the inspector general could be a good place to start.
Bradley Jay is Breitbart News' Capitol Hill correspondent. Follow him on X/Twitter. @BradleyAJay.
