• Democratic officials began using the phrase “speak truth to power” to applaud DNI Dan Coats while insinuating that incoming DNI John Ratcliffe may not uphold this standard.
• Multiple media outlets parroted this phrase, including it in articles that applauded Coats and quoted those who have reservations regarding Ratcliffe.
• “Speak truth to power” is one of the standards of the Intelligence Committee, according to its website.

Multiple Democrats and media outlets parroted the same exact phrase after President Donald Trump would replace Republican Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe to be the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Trump tweeted Sunday that Ratcliffe will become the new DNI as Dan Coats prepares to resign. Democrats used the phrase “speak truth to power,” a piece of the principles of professional ethics for the intelligence community, to praise Coats and condemn Ratcliffe. Outlets such as the Washington Post, the Atlantic and the New York Times have used the phrase as well in similar ways.

“Our Director of National Intelligence should be above partisan politics, speak truth to power, and resist Trump’s abuses of authority. John Ratcliffe doesn’t fit that bill,” Warren tweeted Sunday. She linked to an Atlantic article that also used the phrase to talk Coats up:

Media outlets such as the Washington Post wrote this same talking point as a way to show that Coats spoke truth to power.

WaPo wrote that Ratcliffe “has made his name in Congress as one of the GOP’s most dogged critics of perceived anti-Trump bias at the FBI and in the special counsel’s investigation of his alleged Russia ties.”

Andrew deGrandpre, the Deputy National Security editor at Wapo, tweeted out a link to the article and quoted the phrase.

Click Here: bape jacket cheap