Trump Drops John Ratcliffe's DNI Nomination
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
We ran the numbers: There are 783 news articles covering this topic. 37% (289) are left leaning, 57% (446) center, 6% (48) right leaning.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Friday to announce that his pick for Director of National Intelligence — Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe — will be withdrawing his name from the nomination process. In his tweet, Trump said in part, "Our great Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by members of the LameStream Media." The alleged “unfair treatment” stems from the allegations and reports that Ratcliffe overstated his resume and intelligence bona fides, during his tenure as a United States attorney, making a confirmation increasingly less likely.
The removal of Ratcliffe's name from consideration marks the 39th non-judicial withdrawal that has taken place during the President's tenure, according to the Washington Post. Ratcliffe gained national notoriety last week when he grilled Special Counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller over certain protocols when Mueller testified before Congress, conceivably ingratiating himself to Trump.
A left-leaning CNN coverage focuses on the issues surrounding Ratcliffe's predecessor and former Indiana Senator Dan Coats and how he was an impediment to Trump's agenda. "The more important thing in the President's view, according to the officials, was to have someone who melds with Trump personality-wise and can be a 'credible interlocutor' with the administration, Congress and other countries," the article stated.
A more centrist NPR article instead chooses to focus on the tensions between Trump and the intelligence community, suggesting a souring of the relationship over this recent episode. "...Some people in the spy world made clear how unqualified they believed he was and how unwelcome he would be atop the sprawling alphabet soup of domestic and foreign spy agencies," the article reads.
A right-leaning National Review piece focuses on Ratcliffe's exaggeration of his resume and the subsequent media firestorm saying Trump reached the decision to "escape the media scrutiny surrounding the already-contentious confirmation process."
From the right
Trump Pulls John Ratcliffe’s Director of National Intelligence Nomination
National Review