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US President Donald Trump drops his pick for spy chief
Trump announced the withdrawal himself on Twitter on Friday, blaming “LameStream Media” for being unfair to Ratcliffe but told reporters that media was a part of his vetting process.
US President Donald Trump’s nominee for the top intelligence job, congressman John Ratcliffe, has pulled himself out of consideration after coming under intense scrutiny and criticism for embellishing his resume with false claims about his record as a former federal prosecutor.
Trump announced the withdrawal himself on Twitter on Friday, blaming “LameStream Media” for being unfair to Ratcliffe but told reporters that media was a part of his vetting process. “You vet for me,” he said. “When I give a name, I give it out to the press and you vet for me. A lot of times, you do a very good job - not always.”
Ratcliffe had wrongly claimed leading an operation that resulted in 300 arrests of undocumented migrants in one day and that his office played a major role in anti-terrorism cases. His nomination had also not gone down well with Republican senators who would have decided on his confirmation. Trump reportedly picked Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence, whose office oversees the 17 agencies that form the US intelligence community, for his support and loyalty. The congressman had no experience in national security apart from his membership of the House intelligence committee.
Ratcliffe’s nomination lasted five days before it was pulled, adding him to a growing list of Trump nominees that the White House has had to withdraw because of negative information that surfaced about them after their announcements.
Saikat Chakrabarti, the Indian-American chief of staff of congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is leaving to work with a think-tank dedicated to advocating the Green New Deal.
He had recently angered some Democratic lawmakers by comparing them to segregationist Democrats, who had once opposed civil rights.
He had also faced criticism from conservatives for wearing a Subhas Chandra Bose T-shirt because of Bose’s work with Adolf Hitler.
