Newly confirmed CIA director John Ratcliffe previewed what the agency will look like going forward under his leadership, including preventing it from becoming partisan toward specific candidates.
Ratcliffe was confirmed on Thursday as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, part of President Donald Trump’s plan to reshape the public’s perception of the government. The director elaborated that the Trump administration needs to “restore Americans’ trust in our own institutions,” which includes the CIA protecting the nation while also being truthful to the nation’s residents, both of which the president has argued are not “mutually exclusive missions.”
“And so in the case of the CIA, which is the best foreign intelligence service in the world, after five years to not have a public assessment, to be honest with the American people about where the likely source of a pandemic that killed millions around the world, including a million Americans and really impacted all 345 million Americans in some way,” Ratcliffe argued on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “People lost jobs, they lost houses, they lost their health, they lost their businesses, all of that. And so I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden Administration.”
Shortly after Ratcliffe was sworn in as the CIA’s new director, the agency shifted its view on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, believing that it originated from a Chinese lab leak. Ratcliffe reiterated the agency’s newly-held belief by the agency on Sunday, citing how it is important for the public to see the agency “get off the sidelines” and tell the truth about what the CIA’s intelligence is showing.
Ratcliffe also detailed how the Trump administration is shifting to “get the politics out of the intelligence community,” citing how 51 intelligence officials had their clearance revoked by Trump as part of the administration’s push for “consequences.” He argued how the nation’s intelligence community improperly influenced the 2020 election to claim that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not real in a bid to aid then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“And so this was not retributive in any way, it was about making sure that people think about this, myself included, going forward, that we don’t mix politics and intelligence,” Ratcliffe said.
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Ratcliffe is one of a handful of nominations for Trump’s Cabinet to be recently confirmed, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth being confirmed thanks to Vice President JD Vance serving as a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) was also confirmed Saturday as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, with Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden set to take over her position as South Dakota’s governor.
Meanwhile, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing to serve as Trump’s director of national intelligence is set for Thursday.
