Ratcliffe refuses to say whether Russian interference favored Trump

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI), refused to say Tuesday whether he agreed with the Intelligence Community’s (IC) assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections to help the president.

The original conclusions: Both the IC and the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections to favor Trump. The House Intelligence Committee’s Republican majority concluded in 2018 that Russia interfered in the elections, but did not conclude this was to favor Trump, an analysis Democratic members of the committee disagreed with.

When asked about his thoughts on these conclusions by Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) during the nomination hearing, Ratcliffe would not commit to one side.

Not taking sides: Ratcliffe said that while he had “no reason to dispute” the Senate panel’s findings, he also would not dispute the House Intelligence Committee’s conclusions, a panel on which Ratcliffe serves.

“I respect both committees, but I have not seen the underlying intelligence to tell me why there is a difference of opinion between the two committees,” Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe did agree that Russian interference took place in 2016, and he said that he expects Russia to remain a threat to elections.

“The most important takeaway of the findings I think of both committees is that as Russia continues to sow discord that they have not been successful at changing votes or the outcome of the election, and we need to remain committed to making sure that does not happen in the future,” Ratcliffe said.