New CIA Director Ratcliffe Promises Reform, Calls Out Brennan’s ‘Toxic’ Legacy

John Ratcliffe, recently confirmed as CIA director, has pledged to overhaul the agency and reverse what he calls years of political corruption under former Director John Brennan. Ratcliffe, who previously served as Director of National Intelligence during President Donald Trump’s first term, has made it clear that Brennan’s leadership left a lasting negative impact on the intelligence community.

Speaking in his first interview since taking office, Ratcliffe did not hold back in his criticism. He called Brennan’s time at the agency “one of the worst things” to happen to U.S. intelligence and accused him of pushing a political agenda that undermined national security efforts.

Ratcliffe pointed to the 2016 election as a turning point, citing the FBI’s surveillance of Trump’s campaign and the reliance on the discredited Steele dossier as evidence of systemic corruption. He also highlighted Brennan’s role in advancing the false narrative that Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign, a claim later debunked by federal investigations.

President Trump recently took steps to strip Brennan, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and other officials of their security clearances. The move came after mounting evidence that they used their access to classified information for political purposes rather than national security.

In his efforts to restore trust in the agency, Ratcliffe pledged to eliminate initiatives he believes distracted from the CIA’s primary mission, including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. He argued that these policies led to a decline in performance and contributed to intelligence failures such as the miscalculated assessments in Ukraine and the surprise Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.

Ratcliffe assured that under his leadership, the agency will focus on its fundamental responsibilities — intelligence collection, covert operations, and safeguarding classified information. He vowed to ensure the agency operates on merit and not political interests, emphasizing the need for clear, objective intelligence to inform key decisions in national security.

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