Ratcliffe Withdraws From Intelligence Nomination, Trump Says

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Representative John Ratcliffe withdrew his expected nomination as Director of National Intelligence after scrutiny of his qualifications for the position, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Friday.

Soon after, Ratcliffe tweeted, “While I am and will remain grateful to the President for his intention to nominate me as Director of National Intelligence, I am withdrawing from consideration.”

Trump announced on Sunday that he would nominate Ratcliffe, a Republican, to replace Dan Coats, who’s scheduled to resign Aug. 15. Republican senators had been unusually silent on Ratcliffe since the announcement, while Democrats tore into him as a Trump loyalist who would undercut the traditional independence of the intelligence agencies.

Ratcliffe’s withdrawal produced questions about who Trump will nominate instead -- and whether he will seek a way to oust Sue Gordon, who is deputy director of national intelligence and is in line by law to become acting director when Coats departs.

Trump told reporters Friday that he likes Gordon “very much” and may name her acting director.

Several Trump allies outside the White House told Bloomberg News before Ratcliffe’s withdrawal that they’re urging the president to get rid of Gordon, a career intelligence official. Some portrayed her as an associate of former CIA Director John Brennan, whom Trump has called “the worst CIA Director in our country’s history.”

After House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat sharply critical of Trump, praised Gordon on Friday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “If Adam Schiff wants her in there, the rumors about her being besties with Brennan and the rest of the clown cadre must be 100% true.”

But one national security official in the administration who’s worried Trump could push her aside praised her as one of the strongest leaders in the intelligence community, saying she tells the truth even when people don’t want to hear it.

McCaul as Prospect

Trump, who said he has several candidates in mind, would be able to win confirmation for Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to a member of Congress and a congressional staff member who asked not to be identified.

McCaul, a former prosecutor with experience in counterterrorism issues, served for several years as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and he was considered by Trump at one point for Homeland Security secretary. He drew some criticism at the time from some conservatives as not being enough of a hard-liner on immigration.

McConnell Noncommital

After Trump announced Coats’ departure and his choice for a replacement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a lengthy statement bemoaning the departure of his longtime Senate colleague. He lauded the intelligence chief’s work safeguarding elections against Russian meddling and emphasized the need for U.S. intelligence agencies to be free of political bias to “deliver unvarnished hard truths” to the nation’s leaders.

As for Ratcliffe, McConnell told reporters only that he wasn’t familiar with him.

Trump has indicated he wanted a political loyalist to take charge of the nation’s intelligence community, regarded by some of the president’s allies and supporters as a “deep state” intent on undermining him. Attorney General William Barr has opened an investigation of what he has said was “spying” on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“I hope he gets approved,” Trump said of Ratcliffe earlier this week. “I think we need somebody like that. We need somebody strong that can really rein it in. Because as I think you’ve all learned, the intelligence agencies have run amok.”

Gordon’s Supporters

Schiff wasn’t the only admirer of Gordon who sent signals of support on Friday.

“I’m heartened by the fact that ODNI has an experienced and capable leadership team to help see it through this transition,” Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tweeted that Gordon is “a proven patriot who understands foreign threats, respects the nonpartisan truth and protects America 24/7.”

Ratcliffe’s rise and rapid fall came when Trump announced plans to nominate him just days after the Republican drew praise from conservatives by aggressively questioning Special Counsel Robert Mueller during his congressional testimony.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer ripped into Ratcliffe as a thoroughly unqualified pick chosen because he was a Trump loyalist, as demonstrated by his attack on Mueller.

Several media outlets probed Ratcliffe’s resume, finding that he overstated his experience with terrorism and immigration cases as a federal prosecutor.

Democratic opposition meant Ratcliffe would have probably needed to rely solely on Republican votes for confirmation -- putting endangered Senate Republicans on the spot, including Susan Collins of Maine, a member of the Intelligence Committee who co-wrote the law creating the job in the first place.

--With assistance from Chris Strohm.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Joshua Gallu

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.