July 28, 2019

The Man Reportedly Taking Over as Head of National Intelligence Is a Trump Cheerleader

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is expected to step down in the coming days.

Martin H. Simon/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

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In the coming days, Dan Coats is expected to announce his resignation from his post as the director of national intelligence—a job that involves pulling together information from all of the nation’s spy agencies and presenting it to the president. And his reported replacement is a Texas congressman best known for his over-the-top cheerleading in Donald Trump’s war against Robert Mueller. 

Coats, a former senator from Indiana, will step down soon, but there is not an exact date, the New York Times reported Sunday. Coats clashed with Trump numerous times during his tenure as one of the nation’s top spymasters. Shortly after Trump declared he believed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s insistence that Russia didn’t interfere with the 2016 election—over the assessment of American intelligence agencies—Coats publicly disagreed. When Trump unexpectedly announced that Putin would be welcome at the White House, Coats didn’t hide his uneasiness. 

Coats also issued a report this spring showing that despite Trump’s claims otherwise, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is not likely to give up his nuclear weapons through negotiations. 

Coats’ differences with Trump were apparently biggest over how the United States should perceive Russia, with Coats arguing that it should be viewed as an adversary. 

The New York Times and Axios both reported that Coats’ replacement is likely to be Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican and third-term Congressman who represents suburbs of Dallas. Unlike Coats, Ratcliffe seems to go out of his way to agree with Trump. Ratcliffe, who serves on the House intelligence and homeland security committees, has done his best to use his post to cheer on Trump in his battle with special counsel Robert Mueller.

During Mueller’s testimony to Congress last week, Ratcliffe accused Mueller of breaking the rules by investigating whether the president obstructed justice (Mueller did not). Ratcliffe also claimed that Mueller could not testify on Russian interference because the Department of Justice is investigating Democratic involvement.

On Sunday, just as his name was being bandied about as a replacement for Coats, Ratcliffe was appearing on CNBC to suggest that attorney general William Barr would “deliver justice” to any Obama officials who committed crimes during the investigation into the Trump campaign’s involvement with Russia. 

“They accused Donald Trump of a crime and then they try and reverse engineer a process to justify that accusation,” Ratcliffe said. “So I’m not going to accuse any specific person of any specific crime, I just want there to be a fair process to get there. What I do know as a former federal prosecutor is that it does appear that there were crimes committed during the Obama administration.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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