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“You want intelligence to be truthful, unvarnished, and as straightforward as possible – not what you want to hear, not what supports your political positions,” King says. Told The Associated Press earlier this year after Ratcliffe’s confirmation hearings. “Because if you don’t get that kind of information, you risk making catastrophic mistakes.”
A former senior Trump administration official said King’s name was discussed with senior officials about Biden’s transition. And someone close to King said the senator knew he was in the running. Another person familiar with the internal discussions said King “is under serious consideration”.
Former Obama deputy national security adviser Avril Haines, who heads Biden’s national security transition team, is also a top contender for the DNI role, according to people familiar with the talks.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, launched in 2005 to oversee the country’s vast intelligence apparatus and coordinate information sharing among the 17 agencies, was a major source of controversy during the Trump era. Early in his presidency, Trump – a deep skeptic of the intelligence community, given his role in investigating his campaign’s links with Russia – wanted to reduce ODNI and even considered eliminate it completely.
Trump’s first two intelligence chiefs, Dan Coats and Joseph Maguire, were both forced to leave for not following the party line in every Trump account. Conversely, Grenell and Ratcliffe quickly authorized a series of selective declassifications of the Russia inquiry. warnings from leaders of the intelligence community this would jeopardize intelligence gathering capabilities. Trump and his allies have used the documents to promote their own political narratives, sometimes drawing misleading or inaccurate conclusions from the information.
Biden, on the other hand, told his advisers that he wants to put the blame on people who are already familiar faces of the intelligence community and its oversight bodies – the King checkboxes.
King’s office declined to comment directly when asked if King had been approached about the role.
“Senator King is a committed public servant with an unwavering and independent spirit from Maine and a deep knowledge of the intelligence community,” Communications Director Matthew Felling said in a statement.
Felling added that King “has a long history of advocating for a clear and factual IC, which operates without political influence to best serve the national security interests of the United States.
King has a background in cybersecurity policy, an increasingly important part of the work of the intelligence community as it becomes involved in digital assaults and influences operations around the world. King currently co-chairs the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a panel created in 2018 aimed at developing strategies to deter digital threats from US adversaries like China and Russia.
King also criticized the Trump administration’s hawkish approach to Iran. In 2019, King warned that Trump could lead the United States to an unnecessary impasse with Iran after his administration moved an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf in response to intelligence showing that Tehran had moved missiles to the region .
He questioned whether Tehran really intended to launch a preemptive strike or whether the leadership was simply reacting to Trump’s imposition of harsh sanctions and his unprecedented move to appoint the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful weapon of the country’s army, such as a terrorist organization.
But the possibility of losing a Senate seat can be a major obstacle to King getting the job. Democrats are reluctant to risk losses in their ranks without a reliable Democratic successor, which is not inevitable in politically unpredictable Maine. And King has been a reliable Democratic vote in the Senate despite his independent nickname.
Republicans currently hold a 50-48 advantage over Democrats in the Senate right now, with the final seats to be decided by two rounds in Georgia, slated for Jan.5.
Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.
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