Congressman Doug Collins of Gainesville said Friday morning he is not interested in becoming the director of national intelligence.
President Trump told reporters on Air Force One after a Thursday campaign rally that the Georgia Republican, one of his staunchest defenders during the impeachment hearings in the U.S. House, was among his potential nominees for the intelligence chief job.
But Collins said he is focused on his U.S. Senate race against Sen. Kelly Loeffler and others and would not accept the presidential appointment.
"I know the problems in our national intelligence, but this is not a job that interests me,” Collins said during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network. “At this time it's not one that I would accept because I'm running a Senate race down here in Georgia.”
The director of national intelligence oversees the 17 agencies. The post hasn’t had a permanent appointment since August, when Dan Coats left the position. Joseph Maguire was the acting director, but Trump said Wednesday he would be replaced by Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany. The president later said he would name a new permanent director soon, and that appointment would need Senate confirmation.
Collins has previously said he didn’t think Trump would interfere in the Senate race, but he said Friday morning the president had wanted him, not Loeffler, to be appointed to the seat vacated by longtime Sen. Johnny Isakson, who stepped down last year due to health concerns.
“Just simply being appointed and having a lot of money and ability to spend it against someone is not going to win this race,” Collins said. “The people of Georgia have been coming to us and thanking us for being in this race because they know I’m supportive of the president. I’m the one he actually wanted to be appointed to this job.”
Instead, Gov. Brian Kemp tapped Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman and part-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She has vowed to spend as much as $20 million of her own money to finance her campaign.
A special election matchup between Collins and Loeffler could be messy, some political experts believe. It is also dividing Georgia lawmakers into pro-Collins and pro-Loeffler camps. But Trump, in remarks at the White House on Feb. 6, hinted at a compromise.
During his introduction of Collins, Trump called him “an unbelievable friend.” And he said to Loeffler, “I know, Kelly, that you’re going to end up liking him a lot.”
Then he added, “Something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good. I don’t know; I haven’t figured it out yet.”
The comments led some GOP insiders to float the idea that either Collins or Loeffler could be in line for an appointment to a prominent position by the president.
Georgia's special election rules pit all candidates, regardless of party, against each other on the ballot in November. A runoff would be held in January if no candidate receives a majority of the votes.
That means Collins and Loeffler would be forced into a race with multiple Democratic candidates, including the Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Some Republicans are concerned that Collins and Loeffler would split the GOP vote, making a runoff more likely and possibly putting the Republican’s majority in the Senate in danger.
