(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Praise from Indiana’s congressional delegation for departing intelligence director Dan Coats.
President Trump announced the former Indiana senator’s resignation via tweet on Sunday. Coats will depart August 15 after two-and-a-half years.
Congressman Jim Banks (R-3rd) says the former Indiana senator worked “to depoliticize our nation’s intelligence…at a time that is hard to do.” Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-2nd) says Coats “always put the interests of his country and his fellow Hoosiers first.” Congressman Jim Baird (R-4th) says Coats served the nation “exceptionally well.” And Republican Senators Mike Braun and Todd Young both say Coats made Indiana proud and the nation safer.
Young replaced Coats in the Senate in 2017. He praises what he calls Coats’ “unvarnished” advice to the White House and Congress, and his work to safeguard U-S elections. He credits Coats with preventing Russian tampering with last year’s congressional elections and putting protections in place for next year’s presidential election. One of Coats’ last acts as director was to create a head of election security within the intelligence office.
Coats’ public assessments of of threats from Iran, North Korea and Russia sometimes put him at odds with the White House. Coats consistently pointed a finger at Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, and made no secret of his unease with a private meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. He also warned of continuing efforts by North Korea to maintain nuclear weapons capability.
Media reports have suggested Trump had been considering replacing Coats since February. Young says he doesn’t have any insight into any tensions between the two, but says he sensed in meeting with Coats in recent months that his predecessor was nearing retirement after four decades in public service, including 24 years in the House and Senate.
Young says he doesn’t know Trump’s nominee to replace Coats well — he served one term in the House with John Ratcliffe before moving to the Senate when Coats retired. But he calls the Texas congressman serious and thoughtful, and says he’s confident in his qualifications.
Ratcliffe served as a federal prosecutor before his election to Congress in 2014. He drew attention last week with pointed questioning of special prosecutor Robert Mueller in the House Intelligence Committee.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) called Coats’ exit “bad news for the security of America.” She says Coats was respected by both parties as “an American patriot.” Without naming Ratcliffe, she warned the new director “must put patriotism before politics, and remember that his oath is to protect the Constitution and the American people, not the president.”
A spokesman for Congressman Andre Carson (D-7th) says Carson thanks Coats “for his service to Indiana and our nation.” Carson’s office declined comment on Ratcliffe, who serves with Carson on the Intelligence Committee.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
