WASHINGTON (CN) — In a contentious and socially distanced hearing, the Senate worked Tuesday to install as the nation’s senior-most spy chief Representative John Ratcliffe, mere months after the Texas Republican staunchly opposed the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The proceedings unfolded in a surreal setting with Ratcliffe seated more than six feet away from Senate Intelligence Committee members who appeared in rotating blocks to pose questions with facemasks often dangling from around their necks as they spoke.
“I know these are normally hearings where we’re supposed to see the impression in the whites of your eyes, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make that judgment from here,” said the committee’s vice chairman, Senator Mark Warner, squinting and pulling his mask down as he addressed Ratcliffe.
It was the first confirmation hearing the Senate has held since the Covid-19 pandemic began its blaze across the United States, upending business as usual in Congress. Only a handful of reporters were admitted into the hearing Tuesday and even fewer congressional staff were on hand. Pool reports from the Associated Press counted less than two dozen people present at the top of the hearing, a notably small figure given typical spectacle that comes with the confirmation of an official to such a prestigious position.
After taking center stage during the impeachment inquiry to deny that Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky amounted to abuse of power, Ratcliffe stands poised to oversee the nation’s largest intelligence community apparatus: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He will replace acting director Richard Grenell, another darling of the Trump administration whose formal title is ambassador to Germany.
The thrust of Ratcliffe’s testimony Tuesday centered on a vow he made repeatedly: to be apolitical and ensure that his priorities hinge on the provision of “timely information that will inform decisions to protect the nation.”
“All intelligence will be collected without bias or political influence,” Ratcliffe said. “Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence will not be altered or impacted as a result of outside influences,” the former prosecutor said. “My fidelity and loyalty will always be with the Constitution and the rule of law and my actions as DNI will reflect that commitment.”
Democrats frequently voiced their skepticism of these assertions, not mincing words as they pressed Ratcliffe during questioning on whether he could retain independence from the president if the president didn’t like the assessments he might one day bring to the White House.
This factor has been a longstanding concern for most Democrats since Trump first put Ratcliffe’s name forward following the July 2019 resignation of then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. At the time, Trump said he believed Ratcliffe could “rein in” an intelligence community that had “run amok.”
“What do you think that means,” Senator Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, asked Ratcliffe this morning.
Pausing briefly, Ratcliffe responded: “I’m not sure.”
“I have never said that,” Ratcliffe continued, noting that he was looking forward to fulfilling the director slot because the role is meant to be apolitical by nature, unlike Congress.
Doggedly, Heinrich pressed Ratcliffe to also say whether he, like President Trump has so often suggested in his own criticism, believes there is a “deep state” operating within the intelligence community.
“I don’t know what that means, I don’t know what that is,” Ratcliffe said.
Democrats were also curious about how Ratcliffe might define loyalty. During the impeachment inquiry in the House, Ratcliffe railed against critics of the president, regularly suggesting there wasn’t so much as a hint of impropriety in Trump’s request that Zelensky publicly announce the start of a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, who is poised to take the Democratic nomination this summer in the 2020 presidential election.
