Trump's Next "Yes Man" Says No
The "yes" man
John E. Ratcliffe, a 53 year old carpetbagger from Illinois was chosen by Donald Trump to replace Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence according to Trump's Twitter staff change announcement.
Dan Coats had long butted heads with Trump when it came to Russian and North Korea. Dan Coats is not a "yes" man. He's a man of principal and doing what is best for the American people and our country. Trump, however, has had a "bromance" with both the leaders of these countries. Since he began campaigning, he was courting Putin or maybe it was the other way around.
Ratcliffe was born in Illinois and graduated from High School there, he then attended the University of Notre Dame and finished at Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas Texas. In 1990, after he got his law degree, he says he went into private practice in Dallas, Texas. Unlike those that struggle after college to get in with law firms or open successful practices, he was in a "private" practice where he very quickly became a managing partner. He was going places fast, in law and politics.
He was the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas for a time, he returned to private practice and within a year he was a partner with Attorney General, John Ashcroft's law firm. He also served as the Mayor of Heath, Texas and affluent area. John Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General by Bush in 2001 and served until 2005. It would make sense that in 2004, with Ashcroft's advice, G.W. Bush appointed John Ratcliffe to be Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security for the Eastern District of Texas.
In 2012, Ratcliffe made it to the big show when he was hired to be on Mitt Romney's transition team.
In 2016, Ratcliffe, through the Heritage Foundation was honored with the title of most conservative legislator in Congress and second most conservative legislator in the country. Two things that Trump thought would get his nomination passed by Republicans.
It also helped that Ratcliffe has supported Trump's fixation with Russia and pushing his conspiracy theories. He even went on to say " I have not seen any evidence of Russian interference." As well as the dossier conspiracy and more.
Yes man says "No"
Since Trump's announcement to appoint John Ratcliffe to his administration; the not so well known Ratcliffe of Texas became known very quickly.
Trump would like to blame the media as he always does for the fact that Ratcliffe decided to step down; but it was lies from Ratcliffe's past that have come back to haunt him.
Ratcliffe is from a safe Republican district where he's won his seat by large margins, but it's his lack of experience and lies now that he's out of his comfort zone that put him too close to the fire.
The only experience he has was being a Mayor, a lawyer and a member of Congress, the least experience for someone in that position that has ever held it. So little experience and so much a party of Trump Republican that former intelligence officials felt that he would politicize the position, a politically correct term for calling him a "yes" man for Trump.
Republicans are use to covering for Trump's lies and so the fact that Ratcliffe said he put terrorists in prison and he never did wouldn't have changed their mind about appointing him. The only case Ratcliffe had of domestic terrorism was that of Sgt. Curtis Miles, an Iraq War Veteran who suffered from PTSD and was also listed as Bi-Polar and arrested for making pipe bombs. Ratcliffe said "there is no military service exception for criminal activity."
Or when Ratcliffe claimed that he prosecuted Hamas Bombers, which was not even in his district. He also claimed to have arrested 300 illegals in a day, when in fact he had not arrested any.
The truth be known, John Ratcliffe stepped down to avoid any further digging into his background. Yet, to hear Trump talk about it this morning, it was all him. Trump advised him to step down because the media would make it miserable for his family.
Trump's "yes" man has said no, its time for Trump to look for another candidate.
© 2019 Lady Liberty