Spy chief nominee grilled by Dems

Ratcliffe vows independence from Trump administration

WASHINGTON — Last summer, President Donald Trump’s choice for national intelligence director, Rep. John Ratcliffe, appeared doomed in the Senate, where even Republicans worried that his lack of national security experience and his exaggerated resume made him unfit to oversee the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

Trump withdrew Ratcliffe’s name from consideration in less than a week.

But Trump backtracked and renominated Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence early this year, and the Texas Republican appears likely to win confirmation to one of the most important jobs in Washington. After a Tuesday morning hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the panel’s chair, said he hopes to hold a vote next week.

“There were no questions that he sidestepped today,” Burr said. “He answered everything and I think he did a very successful job at, one, verifying that he’s more than capable of this job, and two, will serve in an independent capacity.”

Democrats did not share that assessment about Ratcliffe, who drew national attention as an outspoken defender of Trump during the Russia investigation and impeachment proceedings.

“I don’t see what has changed since last summer when the president decided not to proceed with your nomination over concerns about your inexperience, partisanship and past statements that seemed to embellish your record,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the panel’s vice chair.

Warner suggested that his Republican colleagues were advancing Ratcliffe’s nomination only because they are eager to replace Richard Grenell, a fierce Trump partisan who has been acting DNI while still serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany. Warner told Ratcliffe that some senators believe his “main qualification for this post is you are not Ambassador Grenell.”

In his testimony, Ratcliffe pledged to remain independent and to share unwelcome assessments with Trump, who forced out the previous national intelligence director, Dan Coats, after a series of clashes.

“I will deliver the unvarnished truth,” Ratcliffe said. “It won’t be shaded for anyone.”

But he labored to avoid contradicting Trump at the hearing. Only after three senators pressed him did Ratcliffe say he disagreed with the president’s claim that U.S. intelligence agencies — which he would oversee if confirmed — had “run amok.”

Ratcliffe said he couldn’t yet assess other high-profile threats and disputes that would fall under his purview.

He wouldn’t say whether Iran had complied with the 2015 nuclear disarmament deal, which Trump abandoned, although U.S. agencies and United Nations monitors concluded that it had.

Nor would Ratcliffe say whether North Korea had made any progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons, the goal of Trump’s diplomatic outreach to Pyongyang. U.S. agencies say the country continues to expand its nuclear capability, although it has suspended underground tests.

Ratcliffe dodged when asked if Russia sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, as U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed and the president has adamantly denied.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee cast doubt on that assessment, which was released in the closing days of President Barack Obama’s administration, while the Senate Intelligence Committee supported the conclusion in a recent bipartisan report.

“I respect both committees,” Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe said he agreed that the Kremlin had meddled in the U.S. election, something Trump has sometimes questioned.

“They have a goal of sowing discord and they have been successful in sowing discord,” he said.

The hearing showed how the coronavirus crisis has reshaped Washington. Senators were asked to watch from their offices and only come to the committee room to directly question Ratcliffe, who sat on the opposite side of the room.

Several senators wore masks, lowering them to ask questions during the hearing. Ratcliffe did not wear a mask.

Burr said the next DNI faced special challenges protecting national security during the pandemic.

“Countries around the world have locked down,” he said. “But those threats have not stopped.”