John Ratcliffe (politician, 1965)

John Ratcliffe

John Lee Ratcliffe (* 20th October 1965 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . From 2015 to 2020 he represented the 4th congressional district of Texas in the US House of Representatives . He has been Director of National Intelligence in the Trump Cabinet since May 26, 2020 .

Family, education and work

John Ratcliffe studied from 1983 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana , where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Politics (Government and International Studies) in 1987. He completed his law degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1989 with a Juris Doctor . In 1989 he was also admitted to the bar and began to work in this profession. As a result, he gave legal lectures at several universities.

Ratcliffe has two children with his wife, Michele. They live in Heath in Rockwall County , Texas.

Political career

Between 2004 and 2012 he was Mayor of Heath City. From 2004 to 2007 he was also the head of the federal counter-terrorism and national security agency for the eastern part of the state of Texas. He was a federal attorney for the same region in 2007 and 2008 . 2012 Ratcliffe supported the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney , the Barack Obama defeated.

In the 2014 election , Ratcliffe was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the fourth congressional constituency of Texas , where he succeeded Ralph Hall on January 3, 2015 , whom he defeated in his party's primary . Born in 1923, Hall was the oldest member of Congress at the time . In the actual election, Ratcliffe had no opponent. Ratcliffe was re-elected in 2016 and 2018 with 88 and 76 percent of the vote. His mandate in the 116th Congress runs until January 3, 2021.

Ratcliffe is considered a Conservative MP. His constituency, which includes the rural northeast of the state, is considered a republican stronghold (see the politics of East Texas ). He is on the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives. When special investigator Robert Mueller was questioned about his Russia investigation at the end of July 2019, Ratcliffe stood out for the sharpness of his questions. On July 28, 2019, President Trump announced on Twitter that Dan Coats was stepping down from his position as intelligence coordinator and that Ratcliffe would be his successor. Reactions to this have been muted among congressmen and critical in the media, as Ratcliffe has been described as politically one-sided and radical, and fear expressed that he is lacking distance from the president. After several media reports that Ratcliffe had beautified his resume, the latter withdrew his candidacy. Trump said on August 2, 2019 that it was up to the media to screen candidates. In 2020, Trump nominated him again for the post, which he then took up on May 26, 2020.

Ratcliffe was a member of President Trump's defense team in impeachment proceedings against him in early 2020 .

Web links

• John Ratcliffe (politicians, 1965) in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Web presence at the Congress (English)
• Ratcliffe on Vote Smart
• Ratcliffe, John. In: Our Campaigns (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rep. John Ratcliffe. In: Govtrack.
2. ^ Edward Helmore: Dan Coats expected to step down as Trump director of national intelligence. In: The Guardian , July 28, 2019.
3. ^ Morgan Chalfant: Trump withdraws Ratcliffe as Intelligence pick. In: The Hill , August 2, 2019.
4. ↑ Bernd Pickert: New US intelligence coordinator: qualification "Trump fan" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 26, 2020, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on May 26, 2020]).
5. ^ Statement from the Press Secretary Announcing Congressional Members of the President's Impeachment Team. In: White House. January 20, 2020, accessed on January 31, 2020 .