Intel chief pick’s answers change few critics’ minds
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee for national intelligence director sought at his confirmation hearing Tuesday to shed his reputation as a loyalist to the president, insisting to skeptical Democrats that he would carry out the job free of political influence or partisan bias.
Senators repeatedly pressed Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican, on whether he could stand up to Trump by presenting him with analysis he did not like. They also asked if he agreed with the president’s assertions that intelligence agencies had “run amok” and been infiltrated by the “deep state.”
Ratcliffe refused to endorse either claim and insisted that he would not shape intelligence findings to meet the desires of anyone.
“Let me be very clear: Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide, if confirmed, will not be impacted or altered as a result of outside influence,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Republican Sen. Richard Burr, the committee chairman, said after the hearing that he was satisfied that Ratcliffe would serve “in an independent capacity.” He promised a quick vote on his nomination.
But Sen. Chuck Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor as the hearing was underway, spoke for many Democrats by dismissing Ratcliffe as a “deeply partisan cheerleader for the president, a yes man in every sense of the phrase.”
Ratcliffe’s path to the job has been topsy-turvy, with the original nomination withdrawn after bipartisan criticism that he is unqualified to oversee the 17 organizations that make up the U.S. intelligence community.
Trump unexpectedly renominated him in February.