Eli Lake, Columnist

Why Did It Take Trump So Long to Drive Out Dan Coats?

The president wants a loyalist as national intelligence director, but that may not help him.

July 30, 2019 at 12:00 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

It is unclear what the director of national intelligence directs.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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The best question to ask about the departure of Dan Coats as director of national intelligence is what took President Donald Trump so long to drive him out?

Coats minced no words when warning of the threat Russia and other foreign actors pose to American elections, and resisted Trump’s pressure to insert himself into the government’s investigation of Russian interference.