Trump has just announced that John Ratcliffe is no longer going to be his pick for DNI, saying that Ratcliffe will just remain in Congress:
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….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
….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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
There were reports this morning that the White House requested a list of all senior people who had been at the DNI for longer than 90 days. The suspicion was that this was to find someone to serve as acting DNI chief because they were reneging on Ratcliffe. Now it appears that may have been correct.
I hate to be cynical, but I suspect that the White House probably thought it would be too difficult to get Ratcliffe through with the allegations of ‘exaggeration’ when it comes to his record, especially in this hyper-partisan environment.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see who Trump picks next.