Senator who urged return of Carter Center now heads US Senate Intelligence Committee

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who was one of several powerful Senators to write to President David Granger urging him to allow the Carter Center to return to Guyana, has been promoted to one of the most influential jobs in Washington.

According to a report from the Miami Herald, Rubio will lead the Senate Intelligence Committee, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell named him to the post on Monday on an interim basis.
Rubio will lead the committee, which often conducts classified work and led a high-profile investigation into Russian influence of the 2016 election, after North Carolina Senator Richard Burr announced his resignation Thursday from the chairmanship while the FBI investigates his stock transactions.
“The senior senator for Florida is a talented and experienced Senate leader with expertise in foreign affairs and national security matters,” McConnell said in a statement. “Senator Rubio was the natural choice for this temporary assignment on the basis of accumulated committee service. His proven leadership on pertinent issues only made the decision easier.”
According to the Miami Herald, Burr’s exit was Rubio’s gain. The North Carolina Senator’s cellphone was seized by FBI agents last week as part of an ongoing insider trading investigation. Burr dumped millions of dollars in stocks after receiving classified coronavirus briefings — before the market tanked in March, the paper reported.
Rubio was the third highest-ranking Republican on the committee after Burr and Idaho Senator Jim Risch. But Risch already leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In a statement, Rubio said he planned to continue the committee’s serious work on intelligence matters around the world.
“I am grateful to Leader McConnell for his confidence in me to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee during Senator Burr’s absence from the chairmanship,” the Herald quoted Rubio as saying. “The committee has long been one that conducts its work seriously, and I look forward to continuing that tradition.”
According to the newspaper, Rubio will now also become one of eight lawmakers to receive regular intelligence briefings from the White House, joining the Senate Majority and Minority leaders, the Speaker of the House and Minority leader and the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Rubio was one of five top-ranking Senators from both the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States of America who wrote to President Granger to allow international observers from the Carter Center and the International Republican Institute (IRI) to return to Guyana to observe the ongoing national recount.
The caretaker Government has come under fire recently for not granting the necessary approval for the observers to return, citing COVID-19 concerns. But it has granted approval for some six to eight flights since the airports were closed to international traffic, to oil giant ExxonMobil to fly in its workers.
In a letter to caretaker President Granger, which was also signed by the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator James E Risch, the Senators called directly on Granger to allow the Carter Center and other international observers to monitor the recount exercise of the March 2 Regional and General Elections to confirm the integrity of the process.
“While we recognise that Guyana has closed its international airport as part of its efforts to address COVID-19, we understand that your government is providing special authorisation in important cases.
“With full respect for Guyana’s public health measures, we are hopeful that you will consider the presence of additional international observers an essential step to strengthening the credibility of the recount,” the Senators added.
In addition to Senator Risch, the letter was also signed by Senators Benjamin Cardin, Robert Menendez and Tim Kaine. The coalition Government has since doubled down on its original position blocking the Carter Center.