Posted on 02/29/2020 5:35:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, is acting director of national intelligence, but President Trump intends to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) to become its permanent head. The president tweeted the announcement Friday afternoon.
“I am pleased to announce the nomination of Rep. Ratcliffe (Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI),” Trump tweeted. “Would have completed process earlier, but John wanted to wait until after IG Report was finished. John is an outstanding man of great talent!”
I am pleased to announce the nomination of @RepRatcliffe (Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Would have completed process earlier, but John wanted to wait until after IG Report was finished. John is an outstanding man of great talent!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020
Ratcliffe was one of the president’s bulldogs during the Democrats’ bogus impeachment push. He was later tapped to be on Trump’s defense team in the Senate when the articles passed the House. At the time, he said he expected a quick trial as the evidence concerning the articles of impeachment was absurdly weak (via McClatchy):
Rep. John Ratcliffe — a member of President Donald Trump’s impeachment team who said he has spent weeks working behind the scenes with White House lawyers — said Tuesday that while “it’s going to get ugly,” he expects a short Senate trial ending in a bipartisan acquittal for the president.
“The House Democrats had a weak case even on a slanted playing field where they made the rules, changed the rules and broke the rules to their advantage. On a level playing field it’s going to get ugly. I expect a short trial. No witnesses. An early acquittal for President Trump,” the Dallas Republican said in a Tuesday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.”
Republicans control 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats. No Democrat has expressed support for acquittal. Sixty-seven votes would be required for removal.
Now, we need Ratcliffe to be just as aggressive cleaning house with the deep state clowns within the administration. Good pick, Mr. President.
Awww, for a minute I was really getting excited about the choice!
We don’t have “czars” in the United States. Trump never used the word “czar” to describe Ratcliffe’s title.
‘Czar’— I despise that title with its connotation to the old Russian Empire/Soviet Union.
I thought i heard Ratcliffe declined the offer?
His job is to come in and do the necessary house-cleaning (mass firings) and then leave to take the animus with him before the "good boss" takes over.
Looking forward to this scenario - couldn't happen to a more deserving group of spooks!
“We don’t have “czars” in the United States.”
and the commie obamie will be the last admin to have them if our side wins.
I am so glad to see this.
I’d imagine he must have an understanding of approval in order to put his name out a second time.
Reminds me of the movie “The Untouchables”, when they went to the academy to find a cop who wasn’t already bought.
Can we all stop using “Czar” to describe a government director. ...And who started using the title of a Russian emperor for a middle level government functionary? (It was probably a democrat — talk about Russian collusion!)
I think Doug Collins was first offered the position and declined.
I think our best fighters in the House should stay in the House.
Surely there is a FReeper or someone sitting on the sidelines who would be stellar at heading Intelligence.
“...who would be stellar at heading Intelligence.”
I think it would be more like taking out the trash.
Back when I was in the news biz, I would never have used “czar” in any context other than the Imperial Romanovs.
Definitely a bit of cliché journalese — right up there with “iconic” and “controversial.”
Of course, my all-time most-hated word, which I never used in any context, was “expert.” My reasoning was that calling someone an “expert” implies a value judgment that I — as a presumably objective reporter — was not really qualified to make.
Instead, simply state the source’s credentials and let the reader decide on that person’s credibility. For example: “Egon Slobotnick, professor of underwater basket weaving at East Podunk State University.”
A few of my colleagues had minds sufficiently open to understand my argument. Whether this influenced them to keep their copy clean of journalese, I really couldn’t tell. I was too busy with my own stories.
Me too! I have four Trump supporting Bulldogs he could have picked from.
Great choice. He was a rockstar during impeachment.
“”””His job is to come in and do the necessary house-cleaning (mass firings) and then leave to take the animus with him before the “good boss” takes over.””””
I hope you are correct that Grennell has been made ‘acting’ DNI to be the hatchet man to purge the Intelligence Agencies of ‘deep state’ operatives.
Then Ratcliffe can come in to fill the empty jobs with people he knows who have integrity.
Will he have to give up his House seat?
He slapped down the whining Penlosi, Schmanure, Schi* and Nonads, insisting the Senate trial would have no witnesses.
The four House jerks kept whining that "it wouldnt be a fair trial without witnesses."
The House morons ignored the fact that a fair trial is constitutionally guaranteed to the accused.....not the accusers.
On January 13th, 2017, a few days before Trump took Office, Obama issued an executive order saying ALL 17 US security agencies could have total access to each other. In other words, they were free to engage in collusion...and that’s exactly what they did.
Pres Obama’s maneuver of January 3, 2017-——his signing of NSA Data-Sharing Order Section 2.3 out of AG Lynch’s office ——is the coupe d’etat to blow out The Deep State. Obama’s original ex/order contains some unusual language particularly the convoluted language WRT “The Strategic Delay of Section 2.3 of Obama’s Executive Order 12333.”
NOTE WELL: Prior to the formal signing of Section 2.3, greater latitude ALREADY existed within the White House in regards to collection of information – especially in relation to the Trump Campaign. However, once signed, Section 2.3 granted broad latitude to inter-agency sharing of information.
But by the time Obama’s new executive order was signed on January 3, 2017, all that information was already in the possession of Obama White House.
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Thus, Susan Rice’s January 20, 2017 email to herself, on Trump's Inauguraton Day, takes on an even greater significance b/c no one was ever supposed to know about the REAL meaning of Obama’s retroactive actions.....until Rice stupidly laid it all out in an official email.
When Susan Rice stupidly wrote a memo to herself, she inadvertently confessed to a series of crimes that added the time line and inferences about what the outgoing Obama administration illegally concealed from incoming President Trump and his aides.
After-the-fact memos are rarely a good idea....they reveal things the author never intended——as did Susan Rice in her now-infamous email to herself on Trump’s inauguration day.
Suzan skipped down the Yellowbrick Road, along with the mental midgets of the Obama Administraton. Obama’s FBI, DOJ, ODNI, CIA and intelligence officials flipped a finger at protocol....and even worse ....they were intentionally dishonest with incoming President Trump and key members of his new administration. Obviously their lack of honesty was a serious issue.......but flipping off established protocol had serious ramifications. This was a “justification memo”......outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice needed to explain why there have been multiple false and misleading statements given to the incoming President Trump and all of his officials. This is not a “CYA” memo, this is a justification memo for use AFTER the Trump-Russia collusion/conspiracy narrative collapsed; if the impeachment effort failed. Her intellectually facile “By-The-Book” reference -refers to both she and then-President Obama being told by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, that President Trump was the subject of an active counterintelligence investigation to determine if he was under the influence of the Russian government. But they NEVER told candidate Trump about it. Even the timing of Rice’s Oz-ish memo, written 15 minutes prior to the end of the Obama administration, is ex-post-facto useful as evidence of the author’s intent.......as Suzan stupidly confesses to a host of crimes.
What people miss about Susan Rice and her need to write that last memo is her attempt to craft a record of a ‘COUNTER-INTEL’ operation that was ongoing and that Obama had instructed that everything be done ‘by the book’.
What is unspoken is that during a counter-intel investigation, it is permissible to lie, or in official terms ‘to disseminate disinformation’.
As long as the Obama spying was characterized as a counter-intel operation, it was legal to have words and actions left in place that might be discovered as untrue. In other words, Rice’s final memo was an attempt to carve out a last minute get-out-of-jail pass for all those involved in the spying.
Obama and Rice likely foresaw that Congressional hearings might uncover false and perjured statements on the part of persons in the spy operation to which the response would be “So what? It was a Counter-Intel operation.”
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