2 days ago - He defeated Ralph Hall, who had served as the district's representative for nearly thirty years, in a runoff election. Ratcliffe was elected without opposition in 2014; he was reelected in 2016 and 2018. Ratcliffe's performance in challenging legal opponents of president Donald Trump, including the special counsel Robert Mueller, led to Trump nominating Ratcliffe as his director of national intelligence in July 2019.

May 8, 2025 - The coming changes have sharpened ... to have insulated the CIA from the kind of political meddling by the White House that many career officials have feared would come with a second Trump administration....

January 21, 2025 - The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon

January 16, 2025 - Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the outgoing intelligence committee chairman, told Mr. Ratcliffe on Wednesday that the CIA needed to collect better intelligence on its adversaries’ technology. “One area that I’ve been particularly concerned about is the ability for the [intelligence community] to monitor technology advancement,” Mr. Warner said. “I think historically that has not been the case.” · China and its race for new technology is a top-of-mind concern for Mr. Ratcliffe. He told lawmakers that the CIA’s main collection and analysis effort must be focused on the ruling Chinese Communist Party. “Specifically, CIA should prioritize intelligence collection and analytic capabilities to uncover and track China’s programs in emergent technology, which is likely to be decisive in determining the global balance of power,” Mr.

July 2, 2025 - Read: Ratcliffe’s withdrawal ... clear: He praised Ratcliffe for exposing alleged abuses by the FBI and former intelligence officials, and for showing “fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation.” But this time, ...

May 23, 2025 - During my time as DNI, I flagged the increasing threat of great power competition with Russia and China, and that threat has only grown in the intervening years. Russia is increasingly cooperating with other adversaries to continue the war in Ukraine and amplify threats to American interests, for example signing a defensive treaty with North Korea. As Director of CIA, I will make sure that we are using our authorities to the fullest extent to degrade these efforts.

problem is, now three-and-a-half years later, the only plausible assessment the agency could · make is that a virus which killed over a million Americans originated in a Chinese Communist · Party-controlled lab whose research included work for the Chinese military. Such an · assessment would have enormous geopolitical implications that the Biden administration ... The sincere, uninhibited, unafraid search for truth should be at the heart of our collective efforts · related to the origins and spread of COVID-19. From intelligence agencies, to members of the · Administration and Congress, to public health officials – every individual and institution should · put politics aside and follow the facts. The American people – particularly the millions of · Americans who lost a loved one to this entirely preventable pandemic – deserve the truth.

RATCLIFFE, John, a Representative from Texas; born in Chicago, Cook County, Ill., October 20, 1965; graduated from Carbondale Community High School, Carbondale, Ill., 1983; B.A., University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind., 1987; J.D., Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Tex., 1989; lawyer, private practice; professor; United States attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, 2007-2008; mayor of Heath, Tex., 2004-2012; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Fourteenth and to the two succeeding Congresses until his resignation on May 22, 2020 (January 3, 2015-May 22, 2020); Director of National Intelligence in the Cabinet of President Donald J.

March 18, 2025 - John Ratcliffe is the first person to have served as both CIA Director and Director of National Intelligence (DNI). During his tenure as DNI, Ratcliffe oversaw U.S. intelligence agencies amid the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 election interference concerns · He faced backlash for declassifying Russian intelligence reports that alleged damaging information about Democrats in the 2016 election · Ratcliffe was a U.S. congressman elected in 2014 · Ratcliffe’s initial nomination as DNI in 2019 faced strong resistance, leading to his withdrawal, but he was later confirmed in 2020 after Trump renominated him. ... US President Donald Trump has appointed John Ratcliffe as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), marking Ratcliffe’s second high-profile intelligence role under Trump’s leadership. Ratcliffe, who was sworn in as the 25th CIA Director, is the first person in US history to have held both CIA Director and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) positions.

Prior to his tenure as the Director of National Intelligence, Director Ratcliffe served for more than five years as the U.S.

January 6, 2026 - The new CIA director John Ratcliffe is a vocal proponent of a firm stance against Iran who has called on Washington to follow Israel’s lead in dealing with Tehran.

January 24, 2025 - “Understand that the nation who wins the race of emerging technologies of today will dominate the world of tomorrow,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers. “Which brings me to the need for the CIA to continue and increase an intensity to focus on ...

March 3, 2025 - Former CIA Director David Petraeus, with whom I had the honor of serving at CIA headquarters and in Iraq, emphasized that a leader “must provide a vision — clear and achievable ‘big ideas,’ combined in a strategic concept — and communicate those ideas through the entire organization.” · With that guidance in mind, Mr. Ratcliffe would be well advised to consider three leadership precepts. First, the CIA’s fundamental duty must be to protect the agency’s clandestine sources. Former Director John Brennan, who was never comfortable dealing with the messy business of human intelligence gathering, once told NPR, “We don’t steal secrets. We uncover, we discover, we reveal, we obtain, we solicit — all of that.” · But the CIA does steal secrets. That’s why the sources who are spying on our behalf, if they are caught, face the most dire consequences, including, in some cases, execution.

November 13, 2024 - That view places him in good company with other incoming Trump administration officials, including Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, who called for a U.S.

November 10, 2025 - In other words, not intelligence, and it's gotten worse over the last four years. Those sources are not unimportant, but without clandestine intelligence, we might as well get briefed by the State Department or a think tank or just read the ...

January 24, 2025 - A former Republican member of Congress from Texas, Ratcliffe was a controversial choice to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the first Trump administration, and was confirmed in a party line vote. As CIA Director (DCIA), Ratcliffe would have extraordinary power over a range of intelligence activities – collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence activities, and managing foreign liaison relationships, among others.