Trump's plan to nominate John Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence didn't even last a full week
President Trump on Friday backed away from his plan to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) as the next director of national intelligence after just five days.
Trump announced his intention to nominate Ratcliffe, who he praised as a "highly respected congressman," to replace Dan Coats on June 28. But Ratcliffe drew scrutiny in the following days when reports from The New York Times and other outlets emerged that he allegedly exaggerated aspects of his career as a prosecutor. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said that this "raises enormous red flags," CNN reports.
On Friday, Trump wrote that he "explained to John how miserable it would be" for him to "go through months of slander and libel," saying that Ratcliffe has as a result "decided to stay in Congress."
Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media. Rather than going through months of slander and libel, I explained to John how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
....John has therefore decided to stay in Congress where he has done such an outstanding job representing the people of Texas, and our Country. I will be announcing my nomination for DNI shortly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
Ratcliffe himself said on Twitter that he is "very grateful" to have been picked by Trump but that "I do not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partisan issue." Therefore, he says he has asked Trump to "nominate someone other than me for this position."
This whole cycle occurred so quickly that Trump didn't actually ever get the chance to formally nominate Ratcliffe for the position before this announcement, but he promised on Friday a new pick will come "shortly."