President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the appointment of John Ratcliffe as the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Known for his staunch commitment to transparency and truth, Ratcliffe previously served as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) under Trump, where he earned a reputation as a relentless advocate for American constitutional rights.
“I am pleased to announce that former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe will serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),” Trump said in a statement.
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public. When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People.”
This appointment reflects Trump’s continued commitment to shaking up entrenched Washington establishments. Ratcliffe’s record speaks for itself: a former Congressman and Cybersecurity Chairman on the House Homeland Security Committee, Ratcliffe has been an unwavering advocate for U.S. national security and has tirelessly worked to keep the intelligence apparatus accountable.
“For these and many other reasons, it was my great honor in 2020 to award John the National Security Medal, the Nation’s highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of Intelligence and National Security,” Trump said.
“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation’s highest Intelligence positions. He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” he added.
John Ratcliffe’s bio according to the press release:
John Ratcliffe previously served as the sixth Director of National Intelligence (DNI). In that role, Director Ratcliffe served as the leader of the U.S. intelligence community and principal intelligence advisor to President Trump.
Prior to his nomination and confirmation as DNI, Director Ratcliffe served in Congress for over five years as the U.S. Representative for the 4th Congressional District of Texas. As a Congressman, he was a leading policy maker on national security issues as a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees and as Cybersecurity Chairman on the Homeland Security Committee.
Recall that former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe joined Maria Bartiromo to discuss China’s meddling with the 2020 presidential election on Sunday Morning Futures.
Ratcliffe made it clear that Russia, China, and Iran wanted a Biden presidency, and they all have grown stronger since Joe Biden took control of the White House.
John Ratcliffe: Very clearly they are, Maria. But what the report also tells you is what you outlined there, which is that the intelligence community has to grudgingly walk back the erroneous assessment that in 2020, China was sitting on the sidelines.
Look, I was very vocal that we had collected specific intelligence of a specific plan or campaign by China to interfere in 2020 for the specific purpose of helping Joe Biden become president and – to harm President Trump in his reelection efforts.
And what this report acknowledges is that that’s exactly what happened. And they had to walk it back because the independent ombudsman came forward and said, look, there were analysts for China that were suppressing intelligence deliberately because they feared it would help President Trump. And so now you have Joe Biden’s own Director of the NSA and head of cyber command, acknowledging that China is going to intensify those efforts in 2024, that our greatest geopolitical foe has and will continue to want Joe Biden to be the president for the next four years because, stating the obvious, he’s been very good to China. China wanted him in the first place because Donald Trump had been so tough in terms of trade and tariff sanctions against China.
China correctly believed that Joe Biden would be more pro-China and frankly thought that he would be weaker as a Commander in Chief. And clearly, those things have played out.