House intelligence chair says Republicans are ‘absolutely’ repeating Russian propaganda

Mike Turner, the chairperson of the US House intelligence committee, says some of his fellow Republicans are “absolutely” repeating Russian propaganda on the chamber floor, echoing a similar claim made recently by another rightwing American lawmaker.

“It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” the Ohio congressman told CNN’s State of the Union show.

Turner maintained that one high-profile instance of such misinformation centered on cases where federal lawmakers have sought to portray Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine as a war between Nato and Vladimir Putin’s forces.

“Of course it is not,” Turner said. “To the extent that this propaganda takes hold, it makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle.”

Turner has openly advocated for continuing to provide US aid to Ukraine in its efforts to fend off Russia’s invasion. His comments Sunday came days after Michael McCaul, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, told Puck News that misinformation in favor of Russian interests had found a foothold among his fellow Republicans.

“Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” McCaul said to Puck.

Both Turner and McCaul in their respective interviews suggested that pro-Putin propaganda was as hostile to the US’s position on the world stage as the threats posed by the regimes of Xi Jinping, China’s president, and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader.

Though Turner did not single out any members of Congress or his party Sunday, his remarks came after Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia representative, recently filed a motion to oust Mike Johnson from his role as House speaker if the Louisiana Republican moved forward with a Ukraine aid bill.

The US Senate in February authorized a $95bn foreign aid bill, which included assistance for Ukraine. But Johnson has not brought the package for a vote in the House. And in turn Greene as of Monday had not forced a vote on her motion calling for Johnson’s removal.

Turner on Sunday expressed his belief that Johnson was not at “any risk” of having the speaker’s gavel wrested from him by what he called members of the “chaos caucus … who are seeking attention for themselves and trying to stop all of the important work in Congress”.

A member of Congress since 2003, Turner advanced from a Republican primary in March and is seeking another term in a November general election that is not among those the Cook Political Report considers to be competitive.