John Ratcliffe
Illustration, not an archive object
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency · United States
On the regime page: Trump administration
4 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
“As DNI, I dramatically increased the intelligence community's resources devoted to China. I openly warned the American people that from my unique vantage point as an official who saw more intelligence than anyone else, I assessed that China was far and away our top national security threat.”
Part of his opening statement as nominee. Ratcliffe had been Director of National Intelligence from May 2020 to January 2021, in Trump's first term.
Testimony at the nomination hearing of John Ratcliffe to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 15 January 2025 (Rev.com transcript), opening statement at 33:22 Source
“While I enjoyed my time in Congress, I enjoyed more my time as DNI, an opportunity to be apolitical, and look forward if confirmed as CIA director to continuing to do that. It's absolutely essential that the CIA's leader be apolitical.”
Reply to Chairman Tom Cotton's question whether Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman, could set aside partisan views to lead the CIA's analysis.
Testimony at the nomination hearing of John Ratcliffe to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 15 January 2025 (Rev.com transcript), answer to Chairman Cotton at 38:54 Source
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Issued after a leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment, reported in the press, had described the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as setting the programme back only months.
CIA, "Statement from Director John Ratcliffe about Intelligence on Iran's Nuclear Program," 25 June 2025 Source
“Agency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy. Under my watch, I am committed to ensuring that our analysts have the ability to deliver unvarnished assessments that are free from political influence.”
Statement released with an internal CIA review of how the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election was prepared. The review's text (declassified PDF, read) criticised aspects of the process, including how the assessment's judgment that Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win was reached.
CIA, "CIA Director John Ratcliffe Declassifies Internal Tradecraft Review of 2016 Election ICA to Promote Analytic Objectivity and Transparency," 2 July 2025 Source