How far can a president go to get the intelligence chief he wants?

Sidebar

The Washington Post

News, True Crime, Politics

4.1 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2019

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some officials have questioned whether President Trump’s pick for the Director of National Intelligence might use the position to serve Trump’s political interests. Reporter Shane Harris explains the role of the law in the job’s qualifications.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The following episode of Can He Do That focuses on President Trump's choice to nominate
0:05.1	Congressman John Ratcliffe for the Director of National Intelligence job.
0:09.9	But, as developing news tends to go, things have changed since we published it.
0:15.0	Trump announced Friday afternoon that Ratcliffe has decided instead to stay in Congress.
0:20.8	Trump, though, also tweeted that he'll announce his new pick for Intelligence Chief soon.
0:26.1	So, good news.
0:27.5	The information in this episode is still important.
0:31.0	What laws apply to a president when he's trying to appoint the people he wants to the
0:34.8	highest roles in our government?
0:36.9	And who has the power to enforce those laws?
0:39.4	Stay tuned to find out in this episode.
0:41.8	We think you'll like it.
0:44.1	President Trump announced last Sunday that the Director of National Intelligence, Daniel
0:48.0	Coates, will leave his position in mid-August.
0:51.6	Coates and Trump were known to have a contentious relationship, and so this resignation wasn't
0:56.0	completely unexpected.
0:58.5	But, since the Director of National Intelligence is nominated by the president and then confirmed
1:03.6	by the Senate, the more surprising moment came in Trump's announcement of who he plans
1:08.8	to nominate to replace Coates.
1:11.4	That person is Texas Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe.
1:16.6	Ratcliffe has been one of the biggest critics of perceived anti-Trump bias, both at the
1:21.8	FBI and in the Special Counsel's Russia investigation.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.