Patterico's Pontifications

7/28/2019

Coats Out as DNI

Filed under: Government,Politics — DRJ @ 8:37 pm



[Headlines from DRJ]

Coats out as national intel director, clashed with Trump:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, will leave his job next month, President Trump announced Sunday, after a turbulent two years in which Coats and the president were often at odds over Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump announced Coats’ departure as Aug. 15 in a tweet that thanked Coats for his service. He said he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to the post and that he will name an acting official in the coming days. Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Coats often appeared out of step with Trump and disclosed to prosecutors how he was urged by the president to publicly deny any link between Russia and the Trump campaign. The frayed relationship reflected broader divisions between the president and the government’s intelligence agencies.

Dan Coats is out; Congressman and attorney John Ratcliffe is in following “his sharp questioning of former special counsel Robert Mueller during his congressional testimony last week.”

— DRJ

64 Responses to “Coats Out as DNI”

  1. Trump changes wives and staffers like underwear.

    Nobody’s safe, Mikey.

    Trump/Haley 2020.

    Place your bets…

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  2. Place your bets…

    OK.

    How about $1000?

    Dave (1bb933)

  3. I’ll take it that Ratliffe’s questioning of Mueller was his audition.
    Coats has been playing with house money ever his public reaction to Trump’s Helsinki debacle.

    Paul Montagu (e70a29)

  4. Nice that we’ll have a DNI who is completely unconcerned about Russian interference in our elections, and who’ll obey without question when ordered to obstruct investigation of it.

    Dave (1bb933)

  5. Is this the guy who is in charge of the NSA?

    nk (dbc370)

  6. Never mind. I looked it up.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. @2. Make your book in Vegas, Davy; or London. They’ll take rubles, too.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  8. @3. Helsinki remains unforgivable.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  9. Ratcliffe is a shoe-in for conformation by the Senate. He’s one of the staunchest Trump supporters, and the Republican Senate will want Trump to have his man as Director of National Intelligence, just as they wanted Trump to have his Attorney General at the Department of Justice.

    The question is, who will fill his House seat once Ratcliffe becomes DNI? I suppose a special election will be held later in 2019, or will the seat remain vacant until 2020? If a special election is held, whoever wins with be an interim representative and will have to run again the next November.

    The 4th district represents eighteen counties and parts of counties along the Red River north-east of Dallas-Fort Worth. It is heavily Republican (now) and very conservative. President Eisenhower was born there, and the most distinguished Congressman from the district was long-term Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.

    Ratcliffe ran in the primary against seventeen-term Representative Hall in 2014, who at 91 was the oldest serving member of Congress in history. Ratcliffe lost the primary, but because Hall didn’t win with more than 50% of the vote, there was a runoff election, which Ratcliffe won. He ran unopposed in the election, as the Democrats didn’t bother to file an opponent, nor did they in 2016. They did however file an opponent in 2018. She got clobbered of course, but she did win 25% of the vote. It is difficult to defeat an incumbent, to be sure. But to run against an unkown? That’s an entirely different election scenario.

    Is Texas turning blue? I don’t know, but it was solidly blue for decades. The 15th district, where I live, has never elected a Republican, not ever. In one-fourth of the elections since it was created in 1903, Republicans didn’t even bother to file and candidate. The best known Representative was John Garner, who served for 30 years, was Speaker of the House for three, and who ran with FDR and was elected vice-president in 1932 and 1936, serving until 1941.

    Texas was once the bluest of blue states for decades, then it became one of the reddest of red states for decades. (There was a reason why Ronald Reagan held his re-election campaign announcement in Austin, which I attended, and there was a reason why William F. Buckley filmed an episode of Firing Line on the UT campus, which I also attended.) Now it’s turning purple.

    There are areas of the state that are solidly red, just as there are areas of the state that are solidly blue, but overall the entire state is in flux. Trump really is not very popular here; neither is Cornyn. Cruz skated by, but he’s not very popular either.

    We shall see how this will all unfold.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  10. This country needs more Texans like John Ratcliffe. Having lived in nothing but liberal states, I so admire many Texan conservatives.

    mg (8cbc69)

  11. Pelosi is worried now that deep state Coates is on a hanger in the closet. Who will protect the uni-party now? Nobody except liberals and lawyers trust the DOJ, FBI, CIA. The voting public will benefit from the dismantling of our corrupt uni-party intelligence agencies.

    mg (8cbc69)

  12. DCSCA —

    Haley is too smart for the role of “kick me, I’m a groveling minion who lies almost as good as my Caudillo”. Now, if she figures Trump would get impeached/removed before 2024, maybe.

    Unlike you, I would prefer that Conservatives have someone unsullied after Trump. Somebody needs to tell Lefties they are nuts after the Trump madness passes.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  13. No, if Trump dumps Pence, his running mate will be Pelosi, and only because Hillary is disqualified because they are both from the same state. Trump’s Lumps will praise his 1000/24-D chess, and the Democrats will do what they always do, yell “Racist!”.

    nk (dbc370)

  14. Let him pick our fat J.B. instead.

    urbanleftbehind (c02435)

  15. But it is even money that the orange dumps Pence. It always has been. Just as it was with his wives and mistresses and every other person he has ever associated with. Loyalty is something the orange wants, not something he gives.

    nk (dbc370)

  16. No, as much as you crave prog paradise no, you see ths example in NY and Illinois and California and say it’s just a flesh wound.

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  17. I know its tongue in cheek with you,

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  18. But shuttling mifsud downer and Steele’s gossip is not my idea of intelligence

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  19. Even after a second ruinous Omnibus Bill, which funds every Democrat Sacred Cow, you don’t see a triumvirate with Pelosi as the leader of the Populares, McConnell as the Leader of the Optimates, and Trump as the leader of the Proletarii?

    nk (dbc370)

  20. I have no use for tippy turtle, he approved a few judges that’s the bare minimum, he moonwalker over this whole Russia matter.

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  21. You are evading the question, which I will pare down even more: Are Trump and Pelosi best buds?

    nk (dbc370)

  22. The msm is pining for the days of honest, non-political intelligence provided by James Clapper, Susan Rice and Samantha Power.

    harkin (58d012)

  23. I’m not on cross examination, the Ukrainian boosters were discovered six years ago, practically nothing was said about them, Clapper of course didnt know nothing.

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  24. Our possum Senate is just that, you can get more from a sapphic wiccan than you can from a top man, you cant make this up.

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  25. “Somebody needs to tell Lefties they are nuts after the Trump madness passes.”

    As if that would register…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  26. Well, mg, Ratcliffe is not a native Texan; he’s actually from Illinois. But like Crocket and Bowie, who were from Tennessee, before him, he became a naturalized Texan.

    Since he was elected in the 4th district, his committee assignments have included judiciary, ethics, intelligence, and homeland security, where he has sponsored legislation on cybersecurity. He was also one of the chief lawyers responsible for the Magnitsky Act.

    Given that background, it is incomprehensible why he didn’t take more serious note of the fact-finding in the Special Counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. I mean, that is his specialty, right? Ethics, intelligence, homeland security, cybersecurity, judicial review. But he tossed all his principles out the window to defend Trump and defame Mueller.

    If that’s your idea of a conservative Texan, you don’t know any. Which is why Texas is in play in the next election. Maybe not at the county or state level, but at the federal level, every House and Senate seat is up for grabs. Cornyn will have a tough time defending his seat, just as Cruz had defending his.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  27. @12. Lest you forget, she was ‘smart’ enough to accept the UN spot in the Trump Administration and left on her own terms.

    Don’t kid yourself. If she stays on the Boeing BoD, w/t 737Max issue and new problems surfacing, she’s toast. If Trump offers her the VP spot, she’ll bail out of Boeing and be perfectly line up with the runway to land the 2024 GOP nom. She’s a woman and of Indian descent– a perfect choice to quash criticism of Trump on both women and ‘people of color’ issues, too.

    The ‘conservatives’ you swoon for are out of step with modern America and the shifting make up of the electorate. Get over it. You provide an example; labelling, “Lefties” nuts shows you’re part of the problem of a modern conservative movement that has been effectively neutered. Next you’ll be shouting about fluoride in the water. Welcome to 1964.

    It’s glorious.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  28. because it’s a joke, everything seems to outsourced to contractors like crowdstrike, which are themselves derivative of fireeye, the outfit that allowed the Equifax hack happen under their noses,

    narciso (d1f714)

  29. Ratcliff is unqualified.

    Perfect choice.

    … and Putin smiled

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. I would have preferred fleitz, but it would be too obvious a tie with Bolton, seeing as Schiff was taken in by Ukrainian scammers, warner had a back channel using deripashas attorney waldman to try to reach steele, same guy was the contact with Assange,

    narciso (d1f714)

  31. Ratcliff is unqualified.

    Perfect choice.

    … and Putin smiled

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/29/2019 @ 12:21 pm

    What makes you think he’s unqualified?

    whembly (fd57f6)

  32. fusion gps mark dilanian, follows ben Rhodes and andrea Mitchell, why intelligence hass become an oxymoron, in both senses of the word,

    narciso (d1f714)

  33. #27

    I had not forgotten Haley is the only politician to have improved her standing by a job with the Trump administration. That’s frankly very impressive. I also think, like you, she’s running for President in 2024.

    I see you figure that a Board of Director seat with Boeing is a problem, andbeing VP would give her a well paying job from 2021 to 2024. I see some of your point. I also think Boeing with its huge and ever growing presence in South Carolina, is setting a sleazy prcedent by putting an ex-SC governor on the board.

    But if the idea is to make money (and not work too hard) over the next few years, there are a lot of Fortune 500 Boards to join, and she can always write a campaign ready memoir for a million bucks. And she can stay away from Trump, and avoid most occasions to comment on his rat bastardy. If she becomes VEEP, she will be dragged into the itinerant toady role that Pence fills entirely too well. And Trump will probably end up hating her. If you’re Trump, you probably have no respect for anyone who can stand working for you.

    As for my not being with the times? Well, my favorite music is swing/big band, I love Studio Era movies, old time radio, and victorian literature. I am used to being not with the times…

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  34. @33. Then you’ll appreciate this– as a youngster, was dragged kicking and screaming to see Benny Goodman in concert at the Royal Albert Hall by the folks. It was absolutely magnificent; RAH was sold out. Will never forget one of his clarinet solos– not a sound, not even a cough, in the place as he played… it was superb. Ranks up there w/a Sinatra concert in 80 and a 4-hour Springsteen event in ’75.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  35. @33. Postscript. No, it’s not the BoD seat that’s a problem, it’s the 737Max problem and other festering issues surfacing at Boeing. She’ll eventually get burned w/guilt by association regarding executive decision-making there. Expect she will leave when the opportunity arrives- Pence is deadweight now; ballast; baggage. Haley can juice up the ticket for a win– which is all Trump wants anyway, and she can shape a VP slot on her terms. Nikki Haley is the future of the GOP.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  36. @31. Himself.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  37. 26- My favorite from the great state of Texas is Louis Gohmert.

    mg (8cbc69)

  38. well a large design flaw was there was only backup system, but that decision was made way before he joined the company,

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. @30. Trump knows Walrus Gumbo and has him tagged and bagged. The ex-president of Red-Eye only he hangs around to be close to power and our Captain routinely humiliates him– by ignoring him.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  40. @37. The next ambassador to Antarctica.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  41. #36 @31. Himself.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/29/2019 @ 12:51 pm

    That’s not very convincing…

    whembly (fd57f6)

  42. @38. There’s other problems surfacing. The longer there, the more she’ll participate in the executive decisions surrounding it. Just as LBJ’s Vietnam became Nixon’s war.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  43. 26- Texas happens to be a state that many have migrated to in the last few decades. From both sides of the border. Ratcliffe isn’t the problem in Texas. Whoever runs for his seat will win.

    mg (8cbc69)

  44. @41. Neither is he.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  45. @44. ‘Overall, we rate ‘American Greatness’ Right biased based on story selection that favors the right and Mixed for factual reporting due to the use of poor sources.’ – https://mediabias.com/american-greatness/

    Indeed.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  46. 9. Ratcliffe ran in Ratcliffe ran in the primary against seventeen-term Representative Hall in 2014, who at 91 was the oldest serving member of Congress in
    history.

    That must mean the House of Representatives because Strom Thurmond stayed Senatore from South Carolina past his 100th birthday. And I think there have been pher senators over he age of 90, like Carl Hayden of Arizona.

    Ratcliffe lost the primary, but because Hall didn’t win with more than 50% of the vote, there was a runoff election, which Ratcliffe won.

    Ralph M Hall was first elected to Congress in 1980 as a Democrat. He switched parties in 2004. He and Michigan Congressman John Dingell were the last two World War II veterans serving in Congress.

    He was born on May 3, 1923 and died this year on March 7, 2019.
    senators past the age of 80.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  47. @48. ‘Overall, we rate the Daily Caller strongly right biased based on story selection based on story election that almost always favors the right and Mixed for factual reporting due to numerous failed fact checks. The Daily Caller is a source that needs to be fact checked on a per article basis.’ – https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-caller/

    Just an echo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  48. Supposedly Trump doesn’t like the DNI position and feels its a duplication and unnecessary. Hopefully, Collins and couple R Senator wackos will stop the nomination, and Trump can just not fill it and dismantle the position.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  49. the dni is the product of the 9/11 commissions recommendations, most of them like immigration restrictions from countries of concern, are readily ignored. haspel, has dubious ties to the deep state plotters, and coates just followed the fusion gravy train,

    narciso (d1f714)

  50. as the game of telephone continues,

    https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1155942922409271296

    narciso (d1f714)

  51. Coats was another of those egotists who just couldn’t do his job, and shut up. No, he always had to leak to the news media so all his buddies would know that he was smarter than Trump and don’t blame him for Helsinki or North Korea or whatever.

    I’m coming to the conclusion that Senators make worthless execs. They have big egos, can’t keep their mouths shut, and can’t manage and run organizations.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  52. No person of worth works for Trump for very long. Women seem to last the longest; alpha males the least.

    nk (dbc370)

  53. Admiral Jones held out for a year, then Obama threw him under the bus, Clapper hung on like a barnacle

    Narciso (72d34b)

  54. “Clapper hung on like a barnacle dingleberry.”

    FIFY

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  55. A mifsud associate Charles Crawford also burnt by Tomlinson sought to impugn brexit

    Narciso (72d34b)

  56. Here is John ratcliffe’s questioning of Robert Mueller at the House Permanent select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Wednesday, July 24, 2019:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-of-robert-s-mueller-iiis-testimony-before-the-house-intelligence-committee/2019/07/24/f424acf0-ad97-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html?utm_term=.e8dcdd562f14

    CONAWAY: I yield the balance of time to Mr. Ratcliffe. Thank you.

    RATCLIFFE: I thank the gentleman for yielding. Good afternoon, Director Mueller. In your May 29th press conference and, again, in your opening remarks this morning, you made it pretty clear you wanted the special counsel report to speak for itself. You said at your press conference that that was the office’s final position and we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president.

    Now you spent the last few hours of your life from Democrats trying to get you to answer all kinds of hypotheticals about the president, and I expect that it may continue for the next few hours of your life. I think you’ve stayed pretty much true to what your intent and desire was, but I guess, regardless of that, the special counsel’s office has closed, and it has no continuing jurisdiction or authority.

    So what would be your authority or jurisdiction for adding new conclusions or determinations to the special counsel’s written report?

    MUELLER: As to the latter, I don’t know or expect changes in conclusions that we included in our – in our report.

    RATCLIFFE: So to that point, you addressed one of the issues that I needed to, which was from your testimony this morning, which some construed as a change to the written report. You talked about the exchange that you had with Congressman Lou. I wrote it down a little bit different.

    I want to ask you about it so that the record’s perfectly clear. I recorded that he asked you, quote, “The reason you did not indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC opinion stating you cannot indict a sitting president,” to which you responded, “That is correct.” That response is inconsistent. I think you’ll agree with your written report.

    I want to be clear that it is not your intent to change your written report. It is your intent to clarify the record today .

    MUELLER: Well, as I started today, this afternoon, and added either a footnote or an endnote, what I wanted to clarify is the fact that we did not make any determination with regard to culpability in any way. We did not start that process down – down the road.

    RATCLIFFE: Terrific. Thank you for clarifying the record. The stated purpose of your appointment as special counsel was to ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. As part of that full and thorough investigation, what determination did the special counsel office make about whether the Steele dossier was part of the Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election?

    MUELLER: Again, when it comes to Mr. Steele, I defer to the Department of Justice.

    RATCLIFFE: Well, first of all, Director, I very much agree with your determination that Russia’s efforts were sweeping and systematic. I think it should concern every American. That’s why I want to know just how sweeping and systematic those efforts were. I want to find out if Russia interfered with our election by providing false information through sources to Christopher Steele about a Trump conspiracy that you determined didn’t exist.

    MUELLER: Well, I – again, I’m not going to discuss the issues with regard to Mr. Mueller. The – and in terms of a portrayal of the conspiracies, we returned two indictments in the computer crimes arena. One with GRU and another, active measures in which we lay out, in excruciating detail …

    RATCLIFFE: I …

    MUELLER: … what occurred in those two rather large conspiracies.

    RATCLIFFE: I agree, with respect to that. But why this is important is an application and three renewal applications were submitted by the United States government to spy or surveil on Trump campaign Carter associate – or Carter Page, and on all four occasions, the United States government submitted the Steele dossier as a central piece of evidence, with respect to that.

    Now the basic premise of the dossier, as you know, was that there was a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but the special counsel investigation didn’t establish any conspiracy, correct?

    MUELLER: Well, I – what I can tell you is that the events that you are characterizing here, now, is a part of another matter that is being handled by the Department of Justice.

    RATCLIFFE: But you did not establish any conspiracy, much less a well-developed one?

    MUELLER: Again, I pass on answering that question.

    RATCLIFFE: The special counsel did not charge Carter Page with anything, correct?

    MUELLER: The special counsel did not.

    RATCLIFFE: All right. My time has expired. I yield back.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    SCHIFF: Mr. Ratcliffe.

    RATCLIFFE: Director Mueller, given your constraints on what you’re able or allowed to answer with respect to counterintelligence matters or other matters that are currently open under investigation, you’re not going to be able to answer my remaining questions, so I thank you for your courtesies and the answers that you have given to my prior questions, and I do thank you for your extraordinary career and record of service and yield the balance of my time to the Ranking Member.

    MUELLER: Thank you.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  57. Ratcliffe withdraws.

    ‘Bye-bye.’ – Dead John McLaughlin

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  58. Yes the useless Richard burr who has been a party to this pantomime,

    Narciso (72d34b)

  59. @31. Told ‘ya.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  60. Trump has now withdrawn his intention to nominate Ratcliffe to head DNI, Says he (Trump) talked him out of it, saying he wouldn’t like the confirmation process. Blames the media (there are some integrity questions.)

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1157352000327180289

    “Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people…”

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)


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