Donald Trump WITHDRAWS nomination of John Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence

Donald Trump announced Friday that he was withdrawing Representative John Ratcliffe’s nomination to be his Director of National Intelligence. 

The president nominated him to the post less than a week ago but the pick was met with little enthusiasm, even by Republicans. 

Trump argued Ratcliffe would be made ‘miserable’ by the process and blamed the media.  

Donald Trump announced Friday that he was withdrawing Representative John Ratcliffe’s nomination to be his Director of National Intelligence

John Ratcliffe received a cool reception to his nomination – even from Republicans

‘Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people,’ Trump tweeted. 

‘John has therefore decided to stay in Congress where he has done such an outstanding job representing the people of Texas, and our Country. I will be announcing my nomination for DNI shortly,’ he added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who shepherds the president’s nominees through the Senate, was lukewarm about Ratcliffe when asked about him this week, saying he had never met him.

‘I’d rather not address that until I’ve had a chance to meet him to discuss his background and qualifications,’ McConnell told reporters in the Senate earlier this week. 

Ratcliffe said he didn’t want his nomination to become a ‘political and partisan issue.’

‘While I am and will remain very grateful to the President for his intention to nominate me as Director of National Intelligence, I am withdrawing from consideration,’ he tweeted.

‘I was humbled and honored that the President put his trust in me to lead our nation’s intelligence operations and remain convinced that when confirmed, I would have done so with the objectivity, fairness and integrity that our intelligence agencies need and deserve,’ he wrote.

‘However, I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue. The country we all love deserves that it be treated as an American issue,’ he said. ‘Accordingly, I have asked the President to nominate someone other than me for this position.’ 

Questions were raised about Ratcliffe’s qualifications for the job.

Ratcliffe would have replaced the well-respected Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence

His previous experience included his work as a mayor of a small Texas city, a federal prosecutor and a member of Congress. 

The director of national intelligence deals with a wide range of foreign affairs, including possible election interference by other nations, North Korea’s nuclear tests and the situation in Iran. 

‘Ratcliffe comes to the job with the least national security experience and the most partisan political experience of any previous director of national intelligence,’ Michael Morell, a former acting CIA director who now hosts the ‘Intelligence Matters’ podcast, told the Associated Press. 

Ratcliffe would have replaced former Indiana senator and ambassador to Germany Dan Coats, who repeatedly clashed with the president in his role as DNI and publicly stated his belief that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, Trump said he picked Ratcliffe in order to rein in U.S. intelligence agencies he said were ‘run amok.’

With Democratic lawmakers including a key centrist from West Virginia raising concerns Ratcliffe won’t be independent, the president said the the conservative Texas lawmaker would do an ‘incredible job.’

The president, who took office amid a clash with the intelligence community over Russian election meddling and the golden showers dossier, on Tuesday blasted the U.S. intelligence agencies Ratcliffe would oversee in his role if confirmed by the Senate. 

‘I think that John Ratcliffe is going to do an incredible job, if he gets approved. He’s got to get approved,’ Trump said. ‘But I think he’ll do a great job. I hope he gets approved.’

Then the president added: ‘I think we need somebody like that there. We need somebody strong that can really rein it in. Because, as I think you’ve all learned, the intelligence agencies have run amok. They’ve run amok.’

Earlier Tuesday, Trump said he had met with Ratcliffe ‘long before’ the Texas lawmaker tore into former Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his congressional testimony.

Trump on Sunday tweeted that he would nominate Ratcliffe, just days after Ratcliffe drew attention by lecturing Mueller and telling the former FBI chief that his probe into potential obstruction of justice by Trump was illegal.

His tweet also followed Ratcliffe’s appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ where the former federal prosecutor said there were ‘crimes committed during the Obama administration.’  

Doubts about his nomination were expressed from the start by members of both parties, raising questions as to whether Ratcliffe could get confirmed in the Senate.  

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, among the most conservative Democrats, said Tuesday: ‘I have not met him. But everything I have seen — and people that do know him and have delved into it — think he’s the wrong person at the wrong time for the wrong job he’d be placed in.’

‘Anyone in the intelligence [community] should not be political at all. You have to get to the most non-political, non-partisan person you can find,’ Manchin added. ‘Why bring in someone who is so toxic?’ 

Trump defended his nominee. 

‘John Ratcliffe is a brilliant man, he is a wonderful person,’ Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Virginia Tuesday.

‘I spoke to him long before about this. Long before. Months ago. I spoke to him long before the Mueller fiasco,’ the president continued, referencing Mueller’s testimony last week. 

‘That was a fiasco. I think probably nobody in the history of Capitol Hill has  embarrassed themselves like Mueller did and the Democrats,’ said Trump.

‘I spoke to him about this for a long time. He’s a very talented guy, he’s a strong man. It’s what we need in that position,’ the president added.  

Ratcliffe questioned the legality of half of the Mueller report during testimony

Republican panel members including Ratcliffe grilled former special counsel Robert Mueller during his appearance before two House committees

‘He’s a very talented guy, he’s a strong man.  He’s what we need in that position.’ 

Former CIA Director John Brennan, a Trump nemesis, warned about Ratcliffe: ‘Mr. Ratcliffe appears to be somebody who is more interested in pleasing Donald Trump.’

Ratcliffe said last week as he dressed down Mueller: ‘Nowhere does it say that [the special counsel was] to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him.’

He blasted him, ‘respectfully,’ for violating ‘every principle in the most sacred of traditions about prosecutors.’

‘You told us this morning and in your report that you made no determination so respectfully director, you didn’t follow the special counsel regulations,’ he told Mueller, referencing the lack of a decision whether to charge Trump with obstruction crimes.

‘It clearly says, write a confidential report about decisions reached. Nowhere in here does it say write a report about decisions that weren’t reached. You wrote 180 pages about decisions that weren’t reached about potential crimes that weren’t charged or decided,’ he continued. ‘And respectfully, respectfully, by doing that you managed to violate every principle in the most sacred of traditions about prosecutors not offering extra prosecutorial analysis about potential crimes that aren’t charged,’ he said.

Five days later, Trump announced he would be nominating Ratcliffe to the DNI post, which oversees 16 intelligence agencies at a $53 billion budget. The post was created after Sept. 11th in part to ensure proper fusion of critical intelligence information. 

Democrats blasted Ratcliffe’s nomination. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was picked ‘because he exhibited blind loyalty to President Trump with his demagogic questioning’ of Mueller. 

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called Ratcliffe ‘one of the president’s accomplices in trying to politicize intelligence.’

Former CIA spokesman George Little tweeted Monday that Ratcliffe would effectively serve as ‘Trump’s poodle,’ due to his relative inexperience in a high managerial post dealing with complex intelligence issues. The former federal prosecutor spent seven months as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

 

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