Richard Grenell is out as acting DNI, with the newly appointed John Ratcliffe taking over the job today. Some have speculated that Ratcliffe, who was savagely opposed his first time around, was quickly put in place this time because of how effective Grenell has been. I’d say that’s a good bet, as he’s gotten more done in three months than the previous DNI got done in three years.

One of the things he’s gotten done is finally start declassifying long held documents which show corruption by the Obama administration. We’ve seen the revelations involving Michael Flynn, and that appears to just be the tip of the iceberg.

But before Grenell left his post, he took Democrat Sen. Mark Warner to the woodshed one more time.

That's gonna leave a mark. @RichardGrenell takes Senator Warner to the woodshed. pic.twitter.com/wyV0bgURi2

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 26, 2020

Man, that’s good stuff.

Warner is the defacto leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, having assumed that position because of the full scale abdication of duty by Sen. Burr. Perhaps that will change now that Sen. Marco Rubio has taken over, with Burr caught up in an insider trading scheme. But previously, Warner has dominated the agenda, stifling investigations of FBI malfeasance and rubber stamping questionable IC reports about the Russians “helping” Donald Trump in 2016.

Grenell is having none of his nonsense though. Here, he rightly points out that Warner was against the harmless declassification of documents that implicated the Obama administration, yet he’s all for declassification of intelligence reports that could actually harm sources and methods. It’s brazen hypocrisy and shows the level of partisanship Warner operates with. These releases are all in the name of transparency, and no one who opposes them can claim to be doing so for anything other than political reasons.

The former acting DNI wasn’t done though. Grenell then asked Warner to explain his philosophy on transparency since it appears to be guided by no set principle at all. Lastly, he points out that Warner could have had all his questions answered had he not ignored requests for a meeting with the ODNI. In summary, it’s just an absolute beat down.

I’m gonna miss this. Ratcliffe seems like a capable enough individual, but Grenell is special. His ability to make his case and push back on partisan hacks like Warner is second to none. I understand he probably wants to spend more time with his family, but man, I wish he’d stick around in some capacity.