Senators Question Fitness of Trump’s Nominee for Intelligence Chief

Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist without intelligence experience nominated by the U.S. president to become the nation’s top intelligence chief, faced a deeply divided panel of U.S. senators on Tuesday. Over the course of his Senate confirmation hearing, Democratic lawmakers questioned his fitness for the post in the wake of his fiery support for President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial and the president’s own chronic misrepresentation of facts that has put him at odds with the U.S. intelligence community in the past.

Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas who at one point was considered unqualified for the job by some fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, sought to portray himself as a director of national intelligence who would leave politics at the door to deliver “unvarnished” truth to the president.