Fmr DNI Ratcliffe: 'Our Greatest National Security Threat' Is Joe Biden
During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe laid out what he perceived to be the top threats to U.S. national security.
According to Ratcliffe, President Joe Biden was the greatest short-term national security threat given he was “ignoring actual intelligence.”
Partial transcript as follows:
Well, Mark, to your point, first on Afghanistan, I hope that it’s just something that has an impact for decades, I hope it’s not centuries, it’s the most profound loss for the United States, certainly in our lifetime.
But one of my concerns there and this goes to your larger question about what has Joe Biden done to our national security is, he has very clearly harmed it, but in so many respects beyond Afghanistan, but this most recent, most painful, colossal, epic failure in Afghanistan has literally breathed life into the radical Islamic terrorist movement, not just in Afghanistan, but around the world, and we won’t know the consequences, how bad they really are, for a long, long time to come, who he’s inspired, and what groups morph out of what they see, as, you know, a victory of epic proportions over you know, the great Satan, the United States.
So that’s just part of it, but to your larger question, Mark. You know, I wrote an article as the Director of National Intelligence saying that China was our number one national security threat. I did that as I was walking out the door based on the person — based on the fact that, you know, I’m the person that saw more Intelligence than anyone else in the country over the past year and China very much is that existential threat to our country.
But if I had to write that op-ed today, I would tell you that I think our greatest national security threat, at least in the short term, is Joe Biden and our national security apparatus. And the reason I say that and I’m not trying to be glib or hyperbolic, but Mark, they have literally gotten everything wrong for eight straight months with respect to China, with respect to Russia, with respect to Iran, with respect throughout the Middle East now, including Afghanistan.
It goes on and on. Literally, they’re batting zero. They’re striking out at every turn and it’s having a profound and grave impact on our national security and our national security posture. And, you know, I hope that people don’t misunderstand or question the United States resolve in the long term, but I think everyone has good reason to question the United States’ resolve in the short term. When we look at what’s transpired in the last eight months under this administration, and I can walk you around the globe and see how our national security posture is weaker, with respect to China, is weaker with respect to Russia, is weaker with respect to Iran, you know, is weaker with respect to radical Islamic terrorists, and so on? It’s — you know, it’s — again, it’s hard to put this in terms.
And I think what’s most troubling for me, Mark, again, I go back to, I always look at what the intelligence, what I saw in that position, and one of the challenges here that we are facing for the next three years is a President who is not listening to the Intelligence. Our Intelligence was crystal clear about what was going to happen in Afghanistan if we withdrew without conditions based — terms that we had negotiated.
And when Biden abandoned that plan, it went exactly to what we said was going to happen, and that is, unfortunately a trend that has continued where this administration, and this national security apparatus keeps making bad decisions, keeps ignoring the actual intelligence that we have, and honestly, nothing concerns me more right now.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
