Jan 15, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Trump CIA pick to push for "the mission" over politics at hearing

Mike Allen

John Ratcliffe walks out of a meeting with Senate Minority Whip John Thune in December 2024. — John Ratcliffe walks out of a meeting with Senate Minority Whip John Thune on Dec. 4, 2024. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

John Ratcliffe — who is Trump's pick for CIA, and was director of national intelligence for the final months of Trump's first term — will rail against the politicization of the intelligence community during his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today, a transition source tells Axios.

He'll vow to eliminate political biases and "wokeness" in the agency's workforce policies, and instead focus on "the mission."

Driving the news: Ratcliffe will portray tech as both a target (Where's China on hypersonics, quantum and AI?) and as a tool (How are analysts utilizing large language models and AI? How are spies beating ubiquitous technical surveillance?).

Ratcliffe thinks the agency — with a complex matrix of tech-focused directorates, mission centers and positions — has struggled to keep pace with the rapid technological advancements in the private sector.
He plans to accelerate efforts to coordinate with U.S. private-sector firms at the bleeding edge of technological advancement.

Ratcliffe will focus on China, as reported in a Wall Street Journal banger, "Trump's CIA Pick Expected to Push for Bare-Knuckle Spycraft Against China."

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Trump CIA pick to push for "the mission" over politics at hearing

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