CIA Director John Ratcliffe said during a Wednesday hearing that the United States had moved on the Iranian regime in part because of the &#8220;alarming&#8221; rate at which Iran was building and stockpiling weapons that could have eventually been fired at Americans or American allies.
Ratcliffe took questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on the reasons President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration had viewed Iran as an imminent threat, saying the regime had been pressing onward with missile development at a rate that American defenses would not have been able to match.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: According to CIA Director Ratcliffe, Iran was developing missiles “at rates that were alarming” and faster than the United States could build defenses. <a href="https://t.co/AXrGBsgtfM">pic.twitter.com/AXrGBsgtfM</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2034300261104033882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When asked by Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) whether Iran was continuing production of both short and midrange ballistic missiles, Ratcliffe&#8217;s answer was a definitive yes.
&#8220;Yes &#8230; continuing to develop them, and at rates that were alarming,&#8221; Ratcliffe confirmed.
&#8220;And what about our ability to respond to those? We have very good defensive capabilities, but it takes time for us to build our defensive capabilities,&#8221; Rounds continued. &#8220;Were they building their offensive capabilities while they were negotiating with us at a faster rate than we could build defensive capabilities?&#8221;
&#8220;Yes,&#8221; Ratcliffe declared.
&#8220;Were they continuing to work at and deliver additional resources to terrorist organizations that were affiliated with them in the region?&#8221; Rounds pressed onward.
&#8220;Yes,&#8221; was Ratcliffe&#8217;s reply.
Rounds noted once again that all of this was taking place while Iran was supposedly negotiating with the United States.
&#8220;So in other words, while they were supposedly diplomatically working with us during that entire time, they were continuing with regard to their nuclear intentions, they were building additional missile systems to deliver — or conventional weapons systems — to threaten their neighbors,&#8221; Rounds pieced it all together, saying that the end result could have been far more dangerous when eventually the United States would have been forced to go in and &#8220;clean&#8221; things up.
Rounds further stated that he agreed with the Trump administration&#8217;s assessment that, if such a thing were possible, it would be &#8220;safer&#8221; for the United States to deal with the threat posed by Iran before such capabilities could be fully realized.
&#8220;I agree with that,&#8221; Ratcliffe said.

Missiles, drones, satellite-carrying rockets and air defence systems on display in Iran

CIA Director Lifts Lid On What Iran Was Quietly Building At Blistering Pace

CIA Director: Iran Was Making Weapons At An 'Alarming' Rate, U.S. Defenses Couldn't Keep Up

Donald Trump

Iran

John Ratcliffe

Politics

Senate Intelligence Committee

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday in Caracas to discuss economic cooperation and intensifying efforts against drug trafficking, a U.S. official confirmed to The Daily Wire. 
The official told The Daily Wire that the meeting focused on &#8220;trust building measures and laying the groundwork for continued communication and room for collaboration between the two governments.&#8221; Rodriguez, who spoke with President Donald Trump during a phone call on Wednesday, became the interim leader of Venezuela after American forces captured dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“At President Trump’s direction, Director Ratcliffe traveled to Venezuela to meet with interim President Delcy Rodriguez to deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship,&#8221; a U.S. official told The Daily Wire. &#8220;During the meeting in Caracas, Director Ratcliffe discussed potential opportunities for economic collaboration and that Venezuela can no longer be a safe haven for America’s adversaries, especially narcotraffickers.”
The official added that the trip was part of the continuation of Trump&#8217;s &#8220;aggressive foreign policy.&#8221; Ratcliffe and &#8220;a small team&#8221; met with Rodriguez and other Venezuelan officials for about two hours, according to the official. Ratcliffe reiterated the need for Venezuela to crack down on drug trafficking, including the violent Tren de Aragua. The official added that the trip showed Ratcliffe is willing to take risks.
The New York Times was the first outlet to report on the trip.
Before Maduro&#8217;s capture, the CIA carried out a reported strike on a Venezuelan port that U.S. officials said was used to load drugs onto boats bound for North America.
Earlier this month, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-leverages-oil-deal-to-make-venezuela-buy-american">announced</a> a controversial oil deal with Venezuela in which the country would provide the United States with between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned crude oil. With the money made from oil sales, Trump said that Venezuela would purchase American agricultural, medical, and electrical equipment. 
Ratcliffe’s meeting with Rodriguez came after Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-ends-up-with-nobel-after-all-as-venezuelas-machado-gifts-prize-at-white-house">met</a> with Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado. 
“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you, María!”
Top Trump officials have reiterated the administration’s commitment to long-term democratic elections in Venezuela; however, the president has not set a timeline for when elections might take place.
​​“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-predicts-quick-but-expensive-venezuela-oil-rebuild-we-have-to-nurse-the-country-back?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=23&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Predicts+Quick%2C+But+Expensive+Venezuela+Oil+Rebuild%3A+‘We+Have+To+Nurse+The+Country+Back’">said</a> in an interview last week. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have to nurse the country back to health.”

US Seizes Russia-Flagged Tanker After Chase Across Atlantic

CIA Director Meets With Venezuela’s Interim Leader As U.S. Shifts Policy

Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela

Forthcoming revelations from former Special Counsel John Durham&#8217;s report will expose the Russiagate controversy, showing just what Hillary Clinton and the FBI did to leverage a Russia collusion narrative against President Donald Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said on Sunday.
During an interview on Fox News, Ratcliffe told &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; host Maria Bartiromo that he has been working to secure the release of a classified section from Durham&#8217;s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/media/1381211/dl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from 2023 that heavily criticized the FBI&#8217;s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged links between Trump&#8217;s campaign and Russia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Today, exclusively on <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SundayFutures</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a>, CIA Director John Ratcliffe <a href="https://twitter.com/CIADirector?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CIADirector</a> spoke about the origins of the Russia Collusion narrative.<a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/YYyWQnlwGO">pic.twitter.com/YYyWQnlwGO</a>
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures/status/1949488131104801101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;What hasn&#8217;t come out yet and what&#8217;s going to come out is the underlying intelligence that I have spent the last few months making recommendations about final declassification and sent that to the Department of Justice,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;That will come out in the John Durham report classified annex. And what that intelligence shows, Maria, is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and burying the truth of what Hillary Clinton was up to.&#8221;
In 2020, when he served as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-feds-referred-hillary-to-fbi-for-probe-after-allegedly-approving-plan-to-create-trump-russia-scandal-to-distract-from-email-scandal-odni-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled</a> documents that showed federal officials referred Clinton to the FBI for investigation after obtaining &#8220;insight&#8221; into a Russian intelligence analysis that alleged she approved a campaign plan to link Trump to Russia&#8217;s hacking operations in order to distract from the controversy over her unauthorized use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.
Durham <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-durham-affirms-crossfire-hurricane-investigators-kept-in-dark-about-alleged-clinton-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> to Congress that members of the FBI&#8217;s Crossfire Hurricane team were not made aware of the intelligence and his report indicated the &#8220;Clinton Plan intelligence&#8221; could have been helpful to them. The report pointed to British ex-spy Christopher Steele&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/trump-russia-investigation-dossier.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now-discredited</a> anti-Trump dossier, stemming from research funded by Clinton&#8217;s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, that the FBI was <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/doj-inspector-general-finds-17-significant-errors-or-omissions-in-carter-page-fisa-applications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> to have improperly used to secure FISA surveillance warrants against onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It also referenced the unfounded secret <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-finds-researcher-felt-threatened-by-schiff-staffer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backchannel</a> between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank that was <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/793250312119263233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoted</a> by Clinton and her team in the run-up to the 2016 election.
&#8220;Whether or not the Clinton Plan intelligence was based on reliable or unreliable information, or was ultimately true or false, it should have prompted FBI personnel to immediately undertake an analysis of the information and to act with far greater care and caution when receiving, analyzing, and relying upon materials of partisan origins, such as the Steele Reports and the Alfa Bank allegations,&#8221; Durham&#8217;s report said. &#8220;The FBI also should have disseminated the Clinton Plan intelligence more widely among those responsible for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation so that they could effectively incorporate it into their analysis and decision-making, and their representations to the OI attorneys and, ultimately, the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court].&#8221;
The report said there was a classified appendix that provides further information about &#8220;details of the Clinton Plan intelligence,&#8221; &#8220;facts that heightened the potential relevance of this intelligence&#8221; to the Office of Special Counsel&#8217;s inquiry, and &#8220;the Office&#8217;s efforts to verify or refute the key claims found in this intelligence.&#8221;
Ratcliffe told Bartiromo &#8220;much of&#8221; the testimony that Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, and former CIA Director John Brennan provided to Durham or Congress in the past five years &#8220;is, frankly, completely inconsistent with what our underlying intelligence that is about to be declassified in the Durham annex, what that reflects.&#8221; Acknowledging how Attorney General Pam Bondi has a new &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justice-department-to-form-strike-force-to-assess-weaponization-of-intel-community" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strike force</a>&#8221; tasked with evaluating the evidence relating the Obama administration’s efforts to drive the Russia collusion allegations, he added, &#8220;It is a different Department of Justice, a different FBI, and an opportunity to look at how these people really did conspire to run a hoax, a fraud on the American people and against Donald Trump&#8217;s presidency.&#8221;

CIA Director John Ratcliffe

CIA Director Says Classified Docs Will Blow Lid Off Russiagate

Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton

James Comey

John Brennan

John Durham

U.S.

Former President Barack Obama rejected on Tuesday what his office deemed to be &#8220;bizarre allegations&#8221; that he and his team sought to gin up intelligence to create a narrative of Russian interference to assist President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
The public <a href="https://x.com/samstein/status/1947740020372099271" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from Obama comes after the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-receives-tusli-gabbards-criminal-referral-for-obama-russia-intel-controversy-report?author=Daniel+Chaitin&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=30&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=DOJ+Receives+Tulsi+Gabbard%E2%80%99s+Criminal+Referral+For+Obama+Russia+Intel+Controversy%3A+Report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> confirmed receipt of a criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard regarding the intelligence assessment released in early 2017 that claimed Moscow sought to help defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and boost Trump in their face-off years ago.
&#8220;Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,&#8221; said Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush.
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have <a href="https://x.com/CIADirector/status/1940452440937263396" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> Obama-era national security leaders of manipulating intelligence to undermine Trump in his first term. Trump himself has called for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/time-to-go-after-people-trump-wants-severe-consequences-for-dems-who-pushed-russia-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;severe consequences&#8221;</a> for those involved.
“Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Hillary Clinton was right there with him, and so was Sleepy Joe Biden, and so were the rest of them — [former FBI Director Jim] Comey, [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper, the whole group. They tried to rig an election, and then they got caught.&#8221;
Rodenbush denied that the document, ostensibly the one <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2025/4086-pr-15-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> by Gabbard, contradicted the findings of the Russia-focused intelligence assessment. He went on to mention the <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/2020/08/18/publications-report-select-committee-intelligence-united-states-senate-russian-active-measures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">results</a> of an inquiry completed under the supervision of now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was a GOP senator.
&#8220;Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,&#8221; Rodenbush said. &#8220;These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.&#8221;
John Brennan, who served as CIA director under Obama and is someone accused by name of manipulating intelligence, also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-brennan-responds-to-specious-allegations-from-obama-russia-intel-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot back</a> at the claims made by Gabbard and Ratcliffe.
&#8220;The specious allegations that both she and Ratcliffe are making, based on the things that they’re putting out, really are quite concerning and quite dangerous,&#8221; Brennan <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/07/21/brennan_dni_gabbards_laughable_allegations_are_for_social_media_wont_stand_up_in_court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> this week on MSNBC.

Former President Barack Obama

Obama Denies ‘Bizarre’ Trump Claims Of 2016 Election Hoax

2016 Election

Russia

Tulsi Gabbard

Former CIA Director John Brennan rebutted what he said were &#8220;specious allegations&#8221; that former President Barack Obama and his team sought to gin up intelligence to create a narrative of Russian interference to assist President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
In an <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/07/21/brennan_dni_gabbards_laughable_allegations_are_for_social_media_wont_stand_up_in_court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> this week on MSNBC, Brennan criticized Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who have <a href="https://x.com/CIADirector/status/1940452440937263396" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> him and other Obama-era national security leaders of manipulating intelligence.
&#8220;The specious allegations that both she and Ratcliffe are making, based on the things that they’re putting out, really are quite concerning and quite dangerous,&#8221; Brennan said.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-receives-gabbards-criminal-referral-bombshell-claims-obama-admin-manufactured-russian-collusion-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Monday that the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-receives-tusli-gabbards-criminal-referral-for-obama-russia-intel-controversy-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> receipt of a criminal referral from Gabbard regarding the intelligence assessment released in early 2017 that claimed Russian meddling sought to help defeat Hillary Clinton.
&#8220;It’s worse than even politicization of intelligence,” Gabbard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-simply-illegal-house-republicans-demand-obama-russia-hoax-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News host Maria Bartiromo during a &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; interview. “It was manufactured intelligence that sought to achieve President Obama and his team’s objective, which was undermining President Trump’s presidency and subverting the will of the American people.”
Ultimately, it will be up to federal prosecutors to open up a case. But some congressional Republicans are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-simply-illegal-house-republicans-demand-obama-russia-hoax-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling for arrests</a>. Democrats have shrugged off the controversy.
“I actually hope that DOJ takes this to court. They won’t, because they know that the howls of laughter from that court will be heard in four time zones,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, <a href="https://x.com/jahimes/status/1946741445861474718" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X. “Watch for DOJ action. Not gonna happen. And when it doesn’t, I hope all the MAGA very online people ask why.”
Trump himself has called for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/time-to-go-after-people-trump-wants-severe-consequences-for-dems-who-pushed-russia-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;severe consequences&#8221;</a> for those involved.
Brennan encouraged people to actually read the intelligence assessment, contending that it makes clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin did order an election interference campaign that denigrated Clinton and boosted Trump.
&#8220;Anybody who looks at the intelligence community assessment and the work that was done will see that it was very carefully worded, meticulously done, and it stands up to scrutiny,&#8221; Brennan said, adding that &#8220;there have been numerous reviews about it, and it didn’t say any of the things that Tulsi Gabbard alleges it said or didn’t say.&#8221;
The former CIA director also suggested that Gabbard is making &#8220;ludicrous&#8221; mischaracterizations of the intelligence community&#8217;s work, but is pushing them on social media in order to &#8220;gain some attention and ingratiate herself&#8221; with Trump.

Former CIA Director John Brennan

John Brennan Responds To ‘Specious Allegations’ From Obama Russia Intel Controversy

The FBI is reportedly probing former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey over their actions related to the Trump-Russia investigation of the 2016 election.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made referrals for investigation and potential prosecution of the former top intelligence officials to FBI Director Kash Patel. The bureau has opened criminal investigations into both Brennan and Comey, though the scope of those investigations is unclear, Department of Justice officials told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-brennan-james-comey-under-criminal-investigation-doj-sources.amp">Fox News</a>.
Last week, Ratcliffe <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/02/us-news/obamas-trump-russia-collusion-report-was-corrupt-from-start-cia-review/">declassified</a> a “tradecraft review” of the 2016 investigation into Russian election meddling and President Donald Trump. The review determined that the investigation may have been sullied by corruption from the start.
Former President Barack Obama ordered Brennan, Comey, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to look into Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and what links, if any, those attempts may have had with the Trump campaign. Obama’s intelligence trio cut corners and froze out most of the rest of the United States intelligence community from the assessment in the atypical investigation, according to the memo.
The after-action report identified “multiple procedural anomalies” such as “a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads.” The procedural oddities undermined the integrity and credibility of the CIA, the report said.
Brennan took the lead on the assessment. He overrode the advice of senior officials at the CIA who recommended not including the unsubstantiated Steele Dossier in the final report
“Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” Ratcliffe’s review says. “When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders — one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background — he appeared more swayed by the Dossier&#8217;s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.”
After the review was completed, its findings motivated Ratcliffe to refer Brennan to the FBI for investigation of potential wrongdoing, according to Fox News.
Brennan “violated the public’s trust and should be held accountable for it,” one official told Fox News without going into detail on what in particular Brennan is being investigated for.

James Comey, John Brennan

Trump DOJ Puts Brennan And Comey Under Investigation For Russiagate: Report

Brennan, Comey Under Criminal Investigation Over 2016 Trump-Russia Probe: Report

WASHINGTON — Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe clarified Wednesday that the CIA has new intelligence indicating &#8220;several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed&#8221; by the recent U.S. strikes.
The CIA published a statement from Ratcliffe late Wednesday afternoon amid legacy media reporting claiming that the United States failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, as President Donald Trump has said, and only set it back by months. The New York Times specifically <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/trump-nato-iran.html">argued</a> that the report upended the victory Trump had hoped to celebrate at the NATO summit.
Trump’s team has aggressively pushed back on the stories. The president himself said Iran’s nuclear sites were obliterated, Israel has also stated the sites were obliterated, and Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/irans-foreign-ministry-says-nuclear-facilities-badly-damaged-by-us-strikes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure.”
Ratcliffe&#8217;s statement noted not only that several nuclear facilities were destroyed but also that Iran&#8217;s Nuclear Program has been &#8220;severely damaged.&#8221;
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,&#8221; Ratcliffe said in a statement. &#8220;This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_939457" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-reveals-intelligence-showing-u-s-destroyed-key-iranian-nuclear-facilities/nato-summit-in-the-hague-final-day-4" rel="attachment wp-att-939457"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-939457" class="wp-image-939457 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2221351945-1.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>USA Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, USA President Donald Trump and USA Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the press conference at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands on June 25, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed,&#8221; he added. &#8220;When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency.”
Earlier on Wednesday, DNI Tulsi Gabbard also put out a statement arguing that &#8220;new intelligence&#8221; shows that &#8220;Iran&#8217;s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.&#8221;
&#8220;If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordo, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do,&#8221; Gabbard said. 
&#8220;The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic,&#8221; she added: &#8220;selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with &#8216;low confidence&#8217;) to try to undermine President Trump’s decisive leadership and the brave servicemen and women who flawlessly executed a truly historic mission to keep the American people safe and secure.&#8221;

Intelligence Directors Testify At Senate Hearing On Worldwide Threats

CIA Reveals Intelligence Showing U.S. ‘Destroyed’ Key Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Israel

CIA Director John Ratcliffe accused the journalist from The Atlantic who wrote a piece about top Trump officials communicating over a Signal chat group that inadvertently included him of lying in his report.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.
&#8220;My responsibility as CIA Director, one of its responsibilities is to kill terrorists, and that&#8217;s exactly what I did along with President Trump&#8217;s excellent national security team,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we should be focused on.&#8221;
Ratcliffe said that one of the major issues with the article was how it falsely suggested things that never happened.
&#8220;I spent four hours answering questions from Senators as a result of that article that were intimating that I transmitted classified information because they were hidden messages,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Those messages were revealed today and revealed that I did not transmit classified information and that the reporter, who I don&#8217;t know, I think intentionally intended it to indicate that.&#8221;
&#8220;That reporter also indicated that I had released the name of an undercover CIA operative in that Signal chat,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;In fact, I had released the name of my chief of staff, who is not operating undercover. That was deliberately false and misleading.&#8221;
Ratcliffe noted that his answers have not changed about what happened, he used an appropriate channel to communicate, and he did not transfer any classified information.
&#8220;At the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success is what everyone should be focused on here because that&#8217;s what did happen, not what possibly could have happened,&#8221; he said.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/CIADirector?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CIADirector</a>: &quot;My answers haven&#39;t changed. I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so &#8230; and at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Mas5YKrz5a">pic.twitter.com/Mas5YKrz5a</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1904908706426351757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-POLITICS-INTELLIGENCE-CONGRESS

CIA Director John Ratcliffe Shreds Atlantic Editor Behind Signal Story: ‘Deliberately False’

The Atlantic

National security officials are grilled on Capitol Hill amid dueling accusations over a military strike text chain. Big food companies are fighting to keep soda and snacks on the subsidized menu. And, EPA Chief Lee Zeldin is taking swift action to dismantle cumbersome environmental regulations.
It’s Wednesday, March 26th, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/signal-snafu-soda-wars-3-26-25/id1576594336?i=1000700886698" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>When The Group Chat Leaks…</h2>
<div id="attachment_897845" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897845" class="size-large wp-image-897845" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Signal-Hearing-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Top national security officials were on Capitol Hill yesterday, where lawmakers grilled them on how a journalist was added to a group chat about military operations.
Damage Control… Around two weeks ago, a user named “Michael Waltz” added Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat where Trump national security officials discussed upcoming strikes on Houthi terrorists. The fallout from that compromised series of communiques, in Washington and in the national press, has been substantial.
Several senior intelligence directors with the Trump administration were already set to testify before the Senate on Tuesday – the hearing naturally became all about the signal chat with Democrats accusing Trump officials of exposing classified information, and the officials defending the administration. CIA Director John Ratcliffe downplayed the severity of the leak in a heated exchange with Senator Jon Ossof (D-GA):
<blockquote>OSSOFF: Director Ratcliffe, this was a huge mistake, correct?
RATCLIFFE: No.
OSSOFF: A national political reporter was made privy to sensitive information about imminent military operations against a foreign terrorist organization, and that wasn’t a huge mistake? This is an embarrassment. This is utterly unprofessional.</blockquote>
Ratcliffe insisted that there was nothing inherently wrong with national security officials discussing military plans on Signal – it was approved under the Biden administration. “One of the first things that happened when I was confirmed as CIA director was Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA – as it is for most CIA officers,” Radcliffe testified before Congress. “That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, also a member of the chat, told Virginia Senator Mark Warner that “there was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat.” 
Trump hasn’t said much about the saga yet, but it seems like he’s standing by Waltz and the entire team. The president told NBC yesterday that Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he&#8217;s a good man.&#8221; Trump added that he’s not concerned about the story, saying it is “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
<h2>Cutting Fat From The Budget</h2>
<div id="attachment_897849" style="width: 795px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897849" class="size-large wp-image-897849" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-785x576.jpg" alt="" width="785" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-785x576.jpg 785w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-300x220.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-768x563.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-1536x1126.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Junk-Food-2048x1502.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px" />(Photo by LauriPatterson by Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Food lobbyists are fighting tooth and nail to stop the Trump administration from limiting taxpayer subsidies for junk food. 
The Trump administration has made a strong push to restrict soda, candy, and other unhealthy options from purchases being made with SNAP, commonly called food stamps. Proponents say this is necessary in light of America’s obesity and overall health crisis, and chiefly, about how taxpayer money is spent. Federally, these changes have been discussed openly by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who plays a key role in administering these benefits.
 There are also numerous bills in the House seeking to restrict junk food and soda from SNAP.
The movement has picked up steam on the state level: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has <a href="https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sanders-calls-for-reforms-to-the-snap-program/">asked</a> the feds to allow her state to restrict SNAP. Lawmakers have made similar moves in Idaho, Kansas, Arizona, Indiana, Texas, and Wyoming, to name a few. In related news, West Virginia has just passed a bill that bans a number of food dyes often found in junk food and sugary drinks – that will affect the soda industry, too, which ran a <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/dietnutrition/114739">strong opposition campaign</a> to that bill. Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed that bill on Monday; it will go into effect in 2028, though it will affect school food programs this summer. 
The food industry is working across numerous fronts to protect the profits of these products. About 1 in 8 Americans receive SNAP benefits currently, with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">soda</a> as the most frequently purchased item. About 10% of all SNAP spending goes toward soda and sugary drinks, and another 10% toward junk food. American taxpayers reportedly subsidize roughly <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/soft-drinks-snap-benefits-congress-3756667?utm_source=chatgpt.com">$4 billion</a> worth of soda products through SNAP.
Buttering Trump Up: The American Beverage Association, or ABA, which represents all of those big soda companies, gave <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/rfk-jr-soda-snap-food-stamps-coke-pepsi-9bd9a872">money</a> to Trump’s inauguration, as they have for past presidents. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper have directly engaged with administration officials – talking up their commitment to “zero-sugar” options and clear product labeling. Coca-Cola also famously met with Trump in January to gift him a personalized bottle of Diet Coke. 
Walmart has also engaged in lobbying efforts to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">stop</a> these restrictions, and, believe it or not, there was also a lobbyist from the American Heart Association (AHA) who advocated against these restrictions. As was first reported by The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition">AHA</a> has since claimed that the lobbyist &#8220;miscommunicated&#8221; the group&#8217;s position. 
A poll commissioned by the ABA found that <a href="https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/health/republicans-divided-over-banning-purchase-soft-drinks-food-stamps?utm_source=chatgpt.com">58</a>% of 2024 Trump voters believe food stamps should be allowed to purchase soda. Overall, 64% of those polled agreed. But, again, this was conducted on behalf of the ABA, and it only polled about 800 people. It’s also noteworthy that a significant number of Americans who voted for Trump receive SNAP benefits – likely tens of millions of Americans. 
Trump himself has not said anything for or against restricting soda and other junk food from SNAP, though he has empowered RFK to enact his “MAHA” agenda.
<h2>EPA Cuts Spending and Regulation</h2>
<div id="attachment_897851" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-897851" class="size-large wp-image-897851" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Zeldin-and-Trump-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: The second Trump administration could oversee one of the largest shifts in environmental policy in over a decade. EPA chief Lee Zeldin is leading the transition with an aggressive effort to cut extensive climate regulations.
The Trump administration, and Zeldin in particular, are aggressively attacking Democratic climate policies and green programs. It’s all part of President Trump’s stated goal of energy dominance.
“I am here to fight for part of that Trump mandate earned [on] November 5th,” Zeldin <a href="https://x.com/epaleezeldin/status/1899998341829730445">told</a> Fox&#8217;s Laura Ingram earlier this month. “[There are] people who cannot afford to be able to heat their home, to purchase a car, small businesses that are struggling to operate. People have been put out of work, and it&#8217;s going to end.”
Zeldin wants to reform and repeal dozens of the most burdensome climate rules. That includes, for example, Biden’s electric vehicle mandate that aims to force a radical change to the automobile market with half of new cars sold being all electric by 2032. Zeldin’s EPA has also set its sights on Obama’s 2009 endangerment finding – that rule essentially set the basis for the EPA to police greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and spawned a massive amount of environmental regulation.
Zeldin has also cut and reclaimed funds from climate programs. In a cabinet meeting on Monday, he said that the EPA had cut “over $22 billion worth of contracts,” which had previously been going to.
Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright has worked alongside the EPA to greenlight a lot of oil and gas projects. And Wright has also been cutting regulations on energy producers – so much so that oil and gas executives are reneging on green investment pledges and pausing the transition to green energy that Democrats have wanted.
 There was also a major court case punishing Greenpeace for its extreme protest strategies. Last week, it was found liable in a nearly $700 million judgment for helping violent protesters destroy and vandalize property in their attempts to sabotage the Dakota Access Pipeline. The trial revealed that Greenpeace USA organizers had trained protesters and even purchased supplies the protesters used to commit illegal acts.

Morning Brief: Signal Chat Fallout, Cutting Soda From SNAP, & EPA Deregulation

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Lee Zeldin

Morning Wire

Trump Administration

Top intelligence officials from the Trump administration strongly pushed back Tuesday on claims that classified material was shared in a Signal chat group about America&#8217;s attack plans on Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
The comments were made during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing less than 24 hours after The Atlantic&#8217;s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story about the Signal chat group after he was accidentally included in the group and was able to monitor communications between officials.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the encrypted app was loaded onto his computer by technicians at the agency after he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
&#8220;One of the things that I was briefed on very early was by the CIA records management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use — it is,&#8221; Ratcliffe told Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). &#8220;That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.&#8221;
He said that his communications in the group were &#8220;entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.&#8221;
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard subsequently told Warner that &#8220;there was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat.&#8221;
The questions came after other top Trump officials — including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and others — were discussing timing and messaging for U.S. military strikes in Yemen against the terrorist group. The White House confirmed the authenticity of the group chat, saying in a statement that it is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
While the Trump administration confirmed that the group chat highlighted in The Atlantic’s story was genuine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Goldberg’s “sensationalist spin.” She <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1904512527699968437">wrote on X</a> that “No ‘war plans’ were discussed” on the Signal group chat and “No classified material was sent to the thread.”
“The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” Leavitt added. “As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread. Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”

Gabbard, Ratcliffe: No Classified Information Was Shared In Signal Chat

Houthis

Scandals

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly offered buyouts to its entire workforce on Tuesday in an effort to restructure the agency and confront the top threats facing the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-cia-is-about-to-get-a-trump-makeover-16fc0cbf">reported</a> that employees were offered eight months of pay and benefits if they quit their jobs, but overall interest among those who work at the CIA appeared to be low.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe&#8217;s officer said that the agency was also temporarily freezing the hiring of applicants who had been given conditional offers.
The report added that President Donald Trump&#8217;s top goals for the agency revolved around trade wars, undermining communist China, and destroying the Mexican drug cartels.
The offers were essentially a signal to those working in the U.S. government that if they oppose Trump, they should leave the agency and work elsewhere.
Ratcliffe reportedly urged the White House to make the offers to the CIA because he believes it is a necessary first step for creating &#8220;a more aggressive spy agency.&#8221;
In his confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe said that the U.S.&#8217;s current threat environment was &#8220;the most challenging&#8221; in history.
&#8220;The Chinese Communist Party remains committed to dominating the world economically, technologically, and militarily,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;Transnational criminal organizations are flooding American communities with violence and deadly narcotics.&#8221;
&#8220;The Russia-Ukraine War wages on, spreading devastation and increasing the risk of the United States being pulled into conflict with a nuclear power,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies continue to export mayhem across the Middle East, and Iran is closer to nuclear breakout than ever before.&#8221;
&#8220;North Korea remains a destabilizing force,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Increasing coordination among America’s rivals and adversaries threatens to compound the threats they each pose individually. And numerous terrorist groups and other non-state actors – some of which have even crossed our southern border – still pose a persistent threat to our people and our homeland.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="John Ratcliffe Tells CIA Officers To ‘Buckle Up’ Or Get Out: ‘We Must Be The Ultimate Meritocracy’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SO8u-0fTRp0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

John Ratcliffe faces Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing

CIA Offers Buyouts In Effort To Reshape Agency To Confront Top Threats

Deep State

General

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said during an interview over the weekend that the world&#8217;s leading intelligence agency was now investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic was an accident or if it was intentional.
Ratcliffe made the remarks during a Sunday interview on &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; while discussing his decision to release the findings from a new assessment that was conducted the Biden administration that concluded that the pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan.
Ratcliffe said that the reason that he released the intelligence was because it was important for Americans to regain trust in government institutions.
&#8220;I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;So it can&#8217;t be accused of being political, and it does assess, the CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab related incident in Wuhan, and so we&#8217;ll continue to investigate that moving forward.&#8221;
When asked by host Maria Bartiromo if the CIA has concluded whether or not the lab leak was &#8220;intentional or accidental,&#8221; Ratcliffe responded: &#8220;I&#8217;m going to look closely at the intelligence that we&#8217;ve gathered.&#8221;
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ll get to the point where every intelligence agency in the United States will agree with the CIA&#8217;s assessment that the most likely outcome was from from a lab in Wuhan,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And we&#8217;ll get more intelligence as time goes by, and we&#8217;ll be transparent with the American people about what that intelligence says.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Trump&#8217;s CIA Director John Ratcliffe says that the agency is evaluating intel it has on COVID origins to determine whether China intentionally started it or if it was an accident. <a href="https://t.co/oQTSykPJI4">pic.twitter.com/oQTSykPJI4</a>
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1883565203633352962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>

CIA Director Ratcliffe: Agency Now Evaluating If China Intentionally Started Pandemic

Communist China

COVID-19

Menu