The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to hold a confirmation hearing as early as next week for President Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies
Ratcliffe rose to national prominence during the House hearings with former special counsel Robert Mueller and, later, the chamber’s impeachment inquiry, during which he emerged as a vocal defender of the president. Some GOP senators, including members of the intelligence committee, have indicated that they will support Ratcliffe’s nomination.the committee’s plans. A spokeswoman for Sen. Richard Burr , the panel’s chairman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ratcliffe previously served as U.S. attorney in Texas, and he was first elected to the House in 2014. He serves on the House intelligence and judiciary committees, giving him a prominent stage as House Democrats led myriad investigations targeting the president last year. Democrats have argued that Ratcliffe is too much of a partisan to occupy the chief intelligence post, and they are expected to largely oppose his nomination.
Trump’s first director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, was widely respected on both sides of the political aisle and often broke with the president in public statements, in particular with regard to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The Senate Intelligence Committee has distinguished itself as one of the few functional bipartisan entities on Capitol Hill. Just last week, the panelbacking up the intelligence community’s initial assessment of Russia’s attempts to meddle in the 2016 campaign — specifically, that the efforts were aimed at helping put Trump in the White House. That report was voted out of the committee unanimously by the panel’s members, which range from Trump loyalists to progressive insurgents.
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