WASHINGTON, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US intelligence chief Dan Coats will leave office next month, Pres Donald Trump announced, after a tenure in which he was regularly at odds with the president.
The departure of Coats — who has, however, sought to avoid direct
confrontation with Trump during his time as Director of National Intelligence — is the latest high-profile exit from the mercurial president’s turnover-plagued administration.
Trump tweeted that Coats will leave on Aug 15, saying he plans to
nominate Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas, who serves on the House
intelligence, judiciary and homeland security committees, to replace him.
“A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the
Country he loves,” Trump wrote, also thanking Coats “for his great service to our Country.”
If Ratcliffe’s nomination is approved, Trump will get an intelligence chief
who is more in synch with his views.
In Congress, he has been a staunch defender of Trump and has criticized two of the president’s nemeses, former FBI chief James Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller.
Ratcliffe has also said he has “seen no evidence” that Russian election
meddling helped bring Trump to office, has backed the president’s assertion
that court-approved surveillance of his campaign amounted to spying, and has supported his hawkish policy on Iran.
The choice of Ratcliffe was hailed by various Republicans — including
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who tweeted that he “will bring
strength and accountability in his new role” — but drew criticism from other quarters.
“Our Director of National Intelligence should be above partisan politics,
speak truth to power, and resist Trump’s abuses of authority. John Ratcliffe
doesn’t fit that bill,” Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren
tweeted.
Coats has not seen eye-to-eye with Trump on a range of issues while serving
as the official who oversees and coordinates the CIA, NSA and other US
espionage bodies.
He backed the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election that brought Trump to office — something the president was long loath to acknowledge.
The intelligence chief also disagreed with Trump’s decision to hold two
hours of closed-door talks with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Helsinki
in July 2018 with no one else present but interpreters.
Trump’s attempts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal via
talks with Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un was another point of disagreement.
The report also warned that the Daesh group — despite Trump’s
assertions to the contrary — was hardly vanquished and could easily rise
again in a vacuum left by departing US forces, resuming global attacks and
restarting its propaganda machine.
Coats’s departure will be the latest in a long series of exits by top Trump
administration officials, including defense secretary Jim Mattis, homeland
security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, chief of staff John Kelly and top diplomat
Rex Tillerson. — NNN-AGENCIES
