Nick Schifrin:
Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence in the last year of the first Trump administration after being a congressman from Texas and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
A Trump ally who’s involved in the intelligence community in the past, told me tonight: “This is a credible, knowledgeable and excellent choice.”
But, back in 2020, when he was initially nominated, there was bipartisan criticism and an attempt to kill his nomination by the Senate Intelligence chairman, Senator Burr, and the vice chairman, Senator Warner, over concerns that he wasn’t qualified for the job, and over concerns about inflating his resume.
That was then, though. He did become director of national intelligence. And a U.S. official today said that some of the concerns about him were that he believed that CIA was part of a — quote — “deep state” trying to take down Donald Trump. As Trump — when he nominated Ratcliffe at first, he said the intelligence community agencies had — quote — “run amok,” and Ratcliffe would try to rein them in. And it appears that he is going to be back to do that just now.
