Trump nominates Rep. John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe to become Director of National Intelligence, just six months after the Texas congressman took his name out of the running for the job.

“I am pleased to announce the nomination of @RepRatcliffe(Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI),” Trump wrote on Twitter while en route to South Carolina for a political rally.

Trump said the nomination process would have been completed earlier, but Ratcliffe wanted to wait until an inspector general’s report was completed on how the FBI handled an investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign coordinated with Russia.

“John is an outstanding man of great talent!” Trump wrote.

Trump's announcement that he had settled on Ratcliffe for the top spy job comes just two weeks after he tapped Richard Grenell to serve as acting director. That decision stirred concern because Grenell, a Trump loyalist who has been serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany, has no intelligence experience.

Trump floated the Texas Republican's name for the job last summer, but Ratcliffe withdrew his bid to become the spy chief after Democrats and some Republicans raised questions about whether he exaggerated his work as a federal prosecutor of terrorism cases. Others questioned Ratcliffe's experience and whether he could give the president unvarnished advice on Russia given his strong partisan views.

Trump told reporters at the time that he thought Ratcliffe "was being treated very unfairly."

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Ratcliffe is likely to face the same kind of opposition he did last summer.

Moments after Trump announced Ratcliffe’s nomination over Twitter, congressional Democrats started voicing their opposition.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., called it “deeply troubling.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer who also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN she was “very concerned” due to Ratcliffe’s lack of intelligence experience.

“The notion that we would have someone without an intelligence background, without that respect for what it is to be driven by facts and evidence and not partisan politics, I think this is overall very detrimental, because I question what type of advice and what type of input the president will be getting from someone who's driven far more by partisan politics than the pursuit of the truth,” she said.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he doesn’t see how anything has changed since the last time Ratcliffe was nominated for this role.

“The last time this nomination was unsuccessfully put forward, serious bipartisan questions were raised about Rep. Ratcliffe’s background and qualifications,” the Virginia Democrat said on Twitter. “It’s hard for me to see how anything new has happened to change that.”

Republican allies of Ratcliffe praised his nomination.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., called Ratcliffe "massively talented" and tweeted that he is "a top notch pick who is serious, motivated & prepared to do an exceptional job on Day 1!"

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who served with Ratcliffe as a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team, called Ratcliffe an “EXCELLENT” choice.

“John is the best of the best—smart, measured, and a total pro,” the North Carolina Republican said.

The intelligence position has been without a permanent director since Dan Coates, a former Indiana senator who held the job since 2017, stepped down. Disagreements between Coates and Trump on Russia, North Korea and other matters often spilled into public view.

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Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, said the nomination may, essentially, extend Grenell's appointment as acting DNI.

"Even if there's no real chance that @RepRatcliffe will be confirmed by the Senate, the formal submission of his nomination will allow @RichardGrenell to continue to serve as Acting DNI past March 11 — and for another 210 days after Ratcliffe's rejection or withdrawal," Vladeck tweeted.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration, dismissed Trump's selection of Ratcliffe as not "a serious nomination."

"Trump, Ratcliffe, and Senate Rs all know he’ll never be confirmed," Price tweeted. "This is a transparent effort to reset the clock on Grenell’s appointment — and a de facto installation of him as DNI for months to come."

Contributing: Christal Hayes

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump picks Rep. John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence