WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is expected to step down and President Trump will tap a congressman who has fiercely defended him in the Russia investigation, according to a new report.
Coats, a former senator from Indiana, has drawn Trump’s ire for not defending him publicly on matters of national security and his relationship with Russia.
The president is expected to nominate GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas as the new intelligence chief, according to the New York Times.
The White House did not immediately comment.
Trump’s relationship with Coats has been fraught at times.
Click Here: fjallraven kanken backpack
Coats seemed critical of Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during an on-stage interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell last year at the Aspen Security Forum.
“That’s going to be special,” Coats said in response to Trump tweeting that Putin would be coming to the White House.
And Trump wasn’t pleased when Coats contradicted him before a Senate committee hearing by saying North Korea was unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons.
“Perhaps intelligence should go back to school!” Trump wrote in January after Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel gave testimony on North Korea, Iran and ISIS that differed from the president’s positions.
Ratcliffe sits on the high-profile House Judiciary and Intelligence committees and has been a staunch defender of Trump against impeachment charges and the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
On Sunday he appeared on Fox News to back the president, as he does frequently.
“It’s becoming a joke,” Ratcliffe said on “Sunday Morning Futures” of Democrats’ attempts at impeachment.
Ratcliffe took aim at committee chairmen Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff.
“Nadler and Schiff are starting to look more like Laurel and Hardy. It’s time to move on,” he said.