WASHINGTON (AP) – Rep. John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence, pledged at his confirmation hearing Tuesday to deliver intelligence free of bias or political influence, even as skeptical Democrats repeatedly pressed the Texas Republican on whether he could stand up to the president and defend the agencies he would oversee.
The comments from Ratcliffe were aimed at quelling concerns that the ardent Trump loyalist would be swayed by political pressure from a president who has been openly dismissive of the government’s spy agencies and once derided them as being “run amok.”
The confirmation hearing, the first in-person one held under drastic new distancing rules to protect Capitol Hill from the coronavirus, comes as Trump faces persistent criticism for politicizing intelligence issues. It’s also been a tumultuous time: At least a half dozen intelligence leaders have been replaced over the last year and agencies already confronting the threat of Russian interference in November’s election are now investigating the politically charged question of whether the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese market or a laboratory.
Ratcliffe’s path to the job has been similarly topsy-turvy, with the original nomination withdrawn after bipartisan criticism that one of the president’s most ardent defenders during the Russia investigations and Trump’s impeachment was unqualified to oversee 17 U.S. spy agencies. Trump unexpectedly renominated him in February. His chances of securing the job appear better, but confirmation is not guaranteed.
Democrats laid bare their skepticism in occasionally contentious questioning, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California pressing him over past comments about whistleblowers and Sen. Ron Wyden asking him about his allegiance to a “snake-oil salesman” president.