Trump picks ex-national intelligence honcho John Ratcliffe for CIA director
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday evening that John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and director of national intelligence, would return to the executive branch as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,” Trump, 78, said in a statement.
Follow the latest news on President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks and White House transition
“When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People.”
Ratcliffe, 59, represented suburban Dallas for more than five years before Trump tapped him to oversee America’s 17 intelligence agencies in May 2020.
Trump initially sought to appoint Ratcliffe as his DNI in 2019, but the then-congressman withdrew his nomination after his bid was met with skepticism from Senate Republicans who viewed him as too partisan and lacking requisite experience.
Ratcliffe faced a sharply divided vote in the upper chamber the following year, when Trump once again nominated the former federal prosecutor for the DNI post.
He won over skeptics, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), by pledging to be apolitical.
“Whether you are talking about the president, whether you are talking about Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell — anyone’s views on what they want the intelligence to be will never impact the intelligence that I deliver. Never,” Ratcliffe testified during his confirmation hearing.
As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe shot down unfounded allegations that The Post’s bombshell report on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was Russian propaganda.
“Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network days after The Post first reported on the Biden family’s extensive overseas business dealings.
Follow the latest on President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet selections:
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“Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that,” he added.
Ratcliffe has also been hawkish on China, accusing the Chinese Communist Party of engaging in “a massive cover-up” of the origins of COVID-19 while pushing to hold “China accountable” for the global pandemic.
Ratcliffe has also been front and center warning that the CCP is waging a covert operation to influence members of Congress into supporting pro-Beijing policies, the scale of which dwarfs similar efforts by Russia and Iran.
