Trump abandons choice to be next intelligence chief
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday abruptly dropped his plan to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe, RTexas, as the nation’s top intelligence official, following bipartisan questions about his qualifications and pushback over whether he had exaggerated his resume.
Ratcliffe, an outspoken supporter of Trump, has come under intense scrutiny since the president declared Sunday on Twitter that the lawmaker was his pick to succeed Dan Coats, who is stepping down as director of national intelligence Aug. 15. The selection generated scant enthusiasm among senators of both parties who would have been tasked with deciding whether to confirm him.
Trump’s announcement that Ratcliffe would not be his nominee after all, also made on Twitter, spoke bitterly of the attention Ratcliffe’s claims about his experience as a federal prosecutor quickly received from the news media.
“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 wrote. “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.”
The announcement was another reversal for the president and underscored recurring dysfunction in the White House vetting process that has plagued the administration since its transition. Ratcliffe joined a long list of Trump appointees who have had to pull their names after the president announced his plans to put them in powerful posts, without a full picture of potentially disqualifying details.
The backtrack leaves Trump without any obvious candidate to fill one of the country’s most important nationalsecurity jobs, heightening scrutiny on what will happen with Sue Gordon, the nation’s No. 2 intelligence official. Trump already has decided not to allow her to rise to the role of acting director of national intelligence when Coats steps down, according to people familiar with his plans.
The decision to circumvent Gordon, who has served as the principal deputy director in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will probably upset Republicans and Democrats in the Senate who had expressed doubts about Ratcliffe.
Trump did not allow Gordon to personally deliver a recent intelligence briefing after she arrived at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter.