Donald Trump forced to bail on his Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe nomination
In the days since Donald Trump ousted Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and nominated dimwitted Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe to take his place, the nomination has faced incrementally increasing difficulty. Now Trump has acknowledged outright defeat when it comes to the absurd nomination.
The first sign of trouble was when the media began reporting that unnamed Republican Senators were less than thrilled with the nomination. That was the GOP’s way of telling Trump that he should consider quietly withdrawing Ratcliffe, in order to avoid embarrassing the party. Then the media dug up the fact that Ratcliffe seriously embellished his record as a federal prosecutor when he ran for Congress. Yesterday, GOP Senator Richard Burr compounded things further by pointing out that Trump’s choice of Acting Director of National Intelligence was flat out illegal.
Palmer Report pointed out that when Senate Republicans have occasionally voiced this much concern in public about a Trump nominee, we’ve typically seen Trump withdraw that nominee before a confirmation vote can take place. Sure enough, Trump announced just now that he’s withdrawing the nomination because the “LameStream Media” has been too hard on Ratcliffe.
Donald Trump also added this interesting sentence: “I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people.” This suggests that Ratcliffe didn’t want to withdraw, but Trump forced him to. Trump continues to throw his own loyalists under the bus whenever it’s necessary to protect himself. Trump has yet to reveal his replacement DNI nominee.
