Trump loyalists to lead key panels
McCain’s death, exit of Corker removes critics from top committees.
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain’s death heralds a sea change for congressional challenges to the Trump administration on national security, as the president’s two most vocal Republican critics pass their powerful committee gavels to two of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters.
McCain, R-Ariz., who used his chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee to question the president’s stance on issues such as Russia, torture and immigration, leaves control to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has been a one-man Greek chorus of epithets decrying Trump’s chaotic approach to diplomacy, will hand the reins to Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, at the start of the new year.
The departure of either committee chairman would be noteworthy, as both have attracted considerable attention for criticizing the White House over foreign policies they deem flawed. But together, they portend a sweeping change in how Congress may use its oversight authority to check the president’s international agenda, according to current and former lawmakers, lobbyists and policy watchers — a changing of the guard with potentially enormous consequences for holding the president to account during crises.
“Corker and McCain, the way they have led those committees, have been exceptions to the rule. ... Both have done a good job of really probing and questioning and disagreeing with their own Republican president when they needed to,” said former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who also served in the Senate as a Republican alongside McCain, Corker, Inhofe and Risch. “That will shift — there’s no question about it.”
McCain and Corker have been celebrated for the tenacity they have brought to oversight of both Democratic and Republican administrations. As a former presidential candidate, Viet-