Rep. John Ratcliffe said his “different kind of experience” makes him a strong candidate for President Trump’s top intelligence official.
The Texas Republican, who is being renominated to be the director of national intelligence, took on criticisms he faces as he explained why he is “absolutely” qualified at a time when the United States deals with national security threats such as the spread of the new coronavirus and another potential wave of Russian election interference, saying, “I’ve been handling national security issues as far back as 2005.”
“I haven’t served in an intelligence agency. I think that bringing a different kind of experience today is really going to be vitally important. You know all of the experience in the world isn’t helpful without judgment, and I think what we’ve seen is that some of our most experienced intelligence officials have gotten it wrong with respect to important issues,” Ratcliffe told Catherine Herridge of CBS News.
His critique aligns with complaints by Trump, who has a history of breaking with intelligence assessments by his own agencies, and who has castigated top former officials who investigated his 2016 presidential campaign. Ratcliffe has been a leading voice in demanding accountability over allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses by the Justice Department and the FBI.
Trump initially nominated Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as the director last summer, but the congressman withdrew within days after some senators questioned his credentials and he was accused of overstating his professional record regarding the prosecution of Hamas terrorists.
“I reconsidered because the president asked me, and I think when the president asks you to do something for your country, you look at that,” Ratcliffe said. “I think I’ll have the support of all Republicans at the end of the day. I’m going to work hard to convince at least some of my Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
After Trump announced late Friday that he was renominating Ratcliffe, Democrats quickly fired off fresh complaints.
“Replacing one highly partisan operative with another does nothing to keep our country safe. At a time when the Russians are interfering in our elections, we need a nonpartisan leader at the helm of the Intelligence Community who sees the world objectively and speaks truth to power, and unfortunately, neither acting Director Grenell nor Rep. Ratcliffe comes even close to that,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Trump defended his selection of Ratcliffe on Saturday, praising him as a “terrific man” during a wide-ranging news conference about the coronavirus earlier on Saturday. “He’s been fantastic at everything he’s done,” Trump added.
The president said Ratcliffe wanted him to hold off on a renomination to the top spy perch until after DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s FISA report had been released, which happened in December.
“He wanted to wait until after the IG report,” Trump told reporters. “The IG report has now come, and we’ve learned a lot of very bad things from the IG report, as you know very well.”
The president also predicted Ratcliffe will be confirmed by the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans.
“I think he’ll go through a process, and I think it’ll go fairly quickly. He’s a very respected man, somebody that I’ve gotten to like, somebody who really has — he’s someone who has really distinguished himself, I think, over the last year and a half or two years in particular,” Trump said. “So, we’re very happy with that.”
Last weekend, Ratcliffe, who is a member of the intelligence and judiciary panels, addressed disputed leaks about classified intelligence on Russian inference in the 2020 election.
“He’s at it again by putting out, through his committee, information that is false,” the Texas lawmaker said. “Look, I’m not trying to be hyperbolic here, but I don’t know anyone in the last three years who has done more to help Vladimir Putin and Russia with their efforts to sow the seeds of discord in American elections and American election security than Adam Schiff has.”
Rep. Adam Schiff is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he called Ratcliffe “an unqualified nominee who should not be confirmed.”
The controversial classified briefing happened earlier this month and was conducted by Shelby Pierson, the Intelligence Community election threats executive under then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. During the meeting, sources cited by the New York Times said Pierson warned that “Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump reelected.”
Ratcliffe said, “We see when there’s a story that is allegedly anti-Trump or negative for the president, it shows up in newspapers because either Democratic members or Democratic staffers leak it. The problem is, in this case, they have leaked information that’s not accurate.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the Washington Examiner that “Shelby did not say Russia is aiding the reelection of President Trump.”
Ratcliffe has been a key inquisitor for Republicans in Congress. Under questioning from Ratcliffe during a House Judiciary Committee hearing this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed that onetime Trump campaign associate Carter Page was surveilled illegally. “FBI Director Wray is right: counterfeiting evidence to conduct illegal surveillance is utterly unacceptable,” Ratcliffe tweeted after the hearing.
As head of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, Ratcliffe would tap into some of the most politically sensitive investigations and reforms that are underway.
It is already known the Justice Department found at least two of four FISA orders targeting Page were invalid. The FBI also told the FISA court it was working to sequester all the information obtained through the Page FISA warrants until the completion of a further review of the DOJ inspector general report and the “outcome of related investigations and any litigation.”
At the Conservative Political Action Conference this week in Maryland, Ratcliffe weighed in on the congressional battle over FISA reform, defending the value of the surveillance law used to root out terrorists and spies. Noting that “maybe 25% of our foreign intelligence comes from that,” Ratcliffe said it “serves our country well and saves lives” while also arguing it needed fixes.
Ratcliffe said it wasn’t enough to defend the DOJ and the FBI: “You have to defend the values behind the institutions … I hope we approach it that right way.”
