Dan Coats | |
---|---|
![]() Official portrait, 2017 | |
5th Director of National Intelligence | |
In office March 16, 2017 –August 15, 2019 | |
President | Donald Trump |
Deputy | Susan M. Gordon |
Preceded by | James Clapper |
Succeeded by | John Ratcliffe |
Chair of the Joint Economic Committee | |
In office January 3,2015 –January 3,2017 | |
Preceded by | Kevin Brady |
Succeeded by | Pat Tiberi |
United States Senator from Indiana | |
In office January 3,2011 –January 3,2017 | |
Preceded by | Evan Bayh |
Succeeded by | Todd Young |
In office January 3,1989 –January 3,1999 | |
Preceded by | Dan Quayle |
Succeeded by | Evan Bayh |
United States Ambassador to Germany | |
In office August 15,2001 –February 28,2005 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | John C. Kornblum |
Succeeded by | William R. Timken |
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from Indiana's 4th district | |
In office January 3,1981 –January 3,1989 | |
Preceded by | Dan Quayle |
Succeeded by | Jill Long Thompson |
Personal details | |
Born | Daniel Ray Coats May 16,1943 Jackson,Michigan,U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Marsha Coats (m. 1965) |
Children | 3 |
Education | Wheaton College (BA) Indiana University, Indianapolis (JD) |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1966–1968 |
Rank | Staff Sergeant |
Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. Coats represented Indiana's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. He was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States. Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term. He did not seek reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Evan Bayh.
After retiring from the Senate, Coats served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005 and then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He was reelected to the Senate by a large margin in 2010, succeeding Bayh, who announced his own retirement shortly after Coats declared his candidacy. Coats declined to run for reelection in 2016 and was succeeded by Todd Young. He was nominated as Director of National Intelligence in January 2017, succeeding James R. Clapper. [1] His term in office commenced on March 16, 2017, and ended on August 15, 2019. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Coats was born in Jackson, Michigan, the son of Vera (Nora) Elisabeth (née Swanlund) and Edward Raymond Coats. His father was of English and German descent, and his maternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden. [6] Coats attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He then studied at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965. At Wheaton, he was an active student athlete on the soccer team. Following his military service, Coats enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis (now Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law). Serving as associate editor of the Indiana Law Review, Coats completed his Juris Doctor in 1972. [7] [8]
Coats served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1966 to 1968. He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company.
From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-Congressman Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as Quayle's district representative.
When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle's seat in the U.S. House. He was reelected four times from this Fort Wayne-based district, usually without serious difficulty.
When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats, who had just been elected to a fifth term in the House, was appointed to Quayle's former seat. He subsequently won a special election in 1990 for the balance of Quayle's second term, and was elected to a full term in 1992. Coats declined to run for a second full term in 1998. He served in the Senate until January 1999, at which time he was succeeded by Evan Bayh.
Coats worked as special counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001. In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush's top choices to be secretary of defense, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld who had previously held the post under President Gerald Ford.
From August 15, 2001, to February 28, 2005, Coats was George W. Bush's ambassador to Germany. [9] [10] As ambassador during the lead-up to the Iraq War, he unsuccessfully pressured the Government of Germany led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder not to oppose the war, threatening worsened U.S. relations with Germany. [11] As Ambassador he also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with then opposition leader Angela Merkel, who approved the Iraq war, and in the construction of a new United States Embassy in the heart of Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate. [12]
Coats served as co-chairman of the Washington government relations office of King & Spalding. [13]
In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers's failed nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate. Echoing Senator Roman Hruska's famous 1970 speech in defense of Harrold Carswell, Coats said to CNN regarding the nomination: "If [being a] great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole." [14]
In 2007, Coats served as co-chairman of a team of lobbyists for Cooper Industries, a Texas corporation that moved its principal place of business to Bermuda, where it would not be liable for U.S. taxes. In that role, he worked to block Senate legislation that would have closed a tax loophole, worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Cooper Industries. [13]
Coats announced on February 3, 2010, he would run [15] for his old Senate seat; and on February 16, 2010, Bayh announced his intention to retire. [16] Coats went on to win the seat. In March 2015, he announced that he would not run for reelection in 2016. He served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. [17]
On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would return to Indiana to run for the seat held by incumbent Evan Bayh in the 2010 United States Senate election. [18] [19] Bayh had made no previous announcements and was fully expected to run for another term, but after Coats announced his candidacy, Bayh announced his retirement on February 15, 2010. On May 4, 2010, Coats won the Republican primary over State Senator Marlin Stutzman and former U.S. Representative John Hostettler. [20] [21]
Coats defeated Democratic U.S. Representative Brad Ellsworth by a 15-point margin to return to the Senate. [22]
Coats became the senior senator from Indiana after Richard Lugar lost a challenge in the 2012 Republican primary election and subsequently was not re-elected to the Senate in 2012. Coats served the remainder of his term with Democrat Joe Donnelly.
On January 5, 2017, Coats was announced as then-President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for the Cabinet-level position of Director of National Intelligence, to succeed the outgoing James R. Clapper. [1] His confirmation hearing was held on February 28, 2017, by the United States Senate Intelligence Committee, which approved his nomination on March 9, 2017, with a 13–2 vote. [23] [24] The Senate confirmed his nomination with an 85–12 vote on March 15, 2017, and he was sworn into office on March 16, 2017. [25]
On July 16, 2018, Coats released a statement affirming the consensus of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, [26] a day after the 2018 Russia–United States summit where President Trump recanted his endorsement of the IC's assessment. [27]
On September 6, 2018, Director Coats denied that he had authored the anonymous op-ed piece from a senior Trump Administration official that criticized the President which had been published by The New York Times the day prior. The day before, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell speculated that Coats was the author of the guest essay, which was later revealed to have been written by then-United States Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor. [28]
Coats released the DNI's "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community" on January 29, 2019, listing the major threats to the United States. The reports states that the "international system is coming under increasing strain amid continuing cyber and WMD proliferation threats, competition in space, and regional conflicts. Among the disturbing trends are hostile states and actors' intensifying online efforts to influence and interfere with elections here and abroad and their use of chemical weapons. Terrorism too will continue to be a top threat to US and partner interests worldwide, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. [Notes 1] The development and application of new technologies will introduce both risks and opportunities, and the US economy will be challenged by slower global economic growth and growing threats to U.S. economic competitiveness." In the report, Coats also highlighted the potential negative impacts to US national security as a result of climate change, with this statement: "The United States will probably have to manage the impact of global human security challenges, such as threats to public health, historic levels of human displacement, assaults on religious freedom, and the negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change." [29] : 4
Reporting to Congress in January 2019, the subject advised that Russia acting in concert with their allies will use novel strategies that build on their previous experience in election meddling. [30] In July 2019, Coats appointed an election security "czar," Shelby Pierson, to oversee efforts across intelligence agencies. She is the first to have that role. [31] [32] Coats also directed other intelligence agencies to appoint executives to coordinate election security. [31]
During his tenure Coats sometimes took public positions that conflicted with Trump's statements or actions. Areas of disagreement included Russia, and particularly Russia's interference in the 2016 election, as well as North Korea and Iran. On July 28, 2019, following multiple anonymous reports that he was about to be let go, Trump announced on Twitter that Coats would depart on August 15 and that he would nominate U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace him as Director of National Intelligence. [3] [4] [33]
Later, it was revealed that Trump had spoken by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 25, three days before Trump fired Coats. (Trump was impeached for pressuring Ukraine.) When the Ukraine scandal came to light, some speculated that Coats's firing had been related to the Ukraine phone call. [34]
On multiple occasions, Coats has supported gun control measures. In 1991, he voted in favor of the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act. This act, which did not become law, would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases and placed a ban on assault weapons. [35] Subsequently, he supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that President Clinton signed into law in 1993. [36] The legislation imposed a waiting period before a handgun could be transferred to an individual by a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer. This waiting period ended when the computerized instant check system came online. Coats also supported Feinstein Amendment 1152 to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993. [37] The purpose of the Feinstein Amendment was to "restrict the manufacture, transfer, and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices". [38]
In April 2013, Coats was one of forty-six senators to vote against passage of a bill which would have expanded background checks for gun buyers. Coats voted with 40 Republicans and five Democrats to stop the passage of the bill. [39]
In 1995, Coats introduced S. 568: Family, Investment, Retirement, Savings, and Tax Fairness Act [40] which would provide "family tax credits, increase national savings through individual retirement plus accounts, indexing for inflation the income thresholds for taxing social security benefits, etc". [41] The bill did not become law.
In 1993, Coats emerged as an opponent of President Clinton's effort to allow LGBT individuals to serve openly in the armed forces. [42] Coats was one of the authors of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and opposed its 2011 repeal. He does not support same-sex marriage but opposes interference with "alternative lifestyles". [43]
Coats pressed President Barack Obama to punish Russia harshly for its March 2014 annexation of Crimea. [44] For this stance, the Russian government banned Coats and several other U.S. lawmakers from traveling to Russia. [44] [45]
In January 2019, Coats warned against the alliance between Russia and China. [46]
Coats supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq on the grounds of uncovering what he believed to be Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. [11]
Coats opposed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers – the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, China, and Germany. [47] He described Iran as the foremost "state sponsor of terrorism". [48]
During testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in January 2019, Coats said that Iran "continues to sponsor terrorism". [49] According to Coats, "Iran's regional ambitions and improved military capabilities almost certainly will threaten US interests in the coming year." [50]
Coats co-sponsored the Taylor Force Act. The legislation proposes to stop American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it stops payments to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists. [51] [52]
In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Coats signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Barack Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel. [53]
Coats co-sponsored, with former senators Edward M. Kennedy, Christopher Dodd, and Jim Jeffords, S.2206: Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. This bill, which was enacted into law, "amended the Head Start Act, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981, and the Community Services Block Grant Act ... in order to provide an opportunity for persons with limited means to accumulate assets." [54]
In 1996, Coats co-sponsored the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, which President Clinton signed into law. The bill allowed the President to "rewrit[e] legislation by vetoing single items of spending or specific tax breaks approved by Congress." [55] In June 1998, The Supreme Court of the United States declared the law unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York in a 6–3 decision.
Coats made headlines in August 1998, when he publicly questioned the timing of President Bill Clinton's cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan, suggesting they might be linked to the Lewinsky scandal: "While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the president's personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action." [56]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dan Coats (incumbent) | 806,048 | 53.6% | −6.93% | |
Democratic | Baron Hill | 696,639 | 46.4% | +7.85% | |
Majority | 109,409 | 7.28% | |||
Turnout | 1,502,687 | ||||
Republican hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dan Coats (incumbent) | 1,267,972 | 57.3% | ||
Democratic | Joseph Hogsett | 900,148 | 40.8% | ||
Libertarian | Steve Dillon | 35,733 | 1.6% | ||
New Alliance | Raymond Tirado | 7,474 | 0.3% | ||
No party | Write-Ins | 99 | 0.0% | ||
Majority | 367,824 | ||||
Turnout | 2,211,426 | ||||
Republican hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dan Coats | 217,225 | 39.5% | |
Republican | Marlin Stutzman | 160,981 | 29.2% | |
Republican | John Hostettler | 124,494 | 22.6% | |
Republican | Don Bates, Jr. | 24,664 | 4.5% | |
Republican | Richard Behney | 23,005 | 4.2% | |
Total votes | 550,369 | 100.0% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dan Coats | 952,116 | 54.60% | +17.37% | |
Democratic | Brad Ellsworth | 697,775 | 40.01% | −21.64% | |
Libertarian | Rebecca Sink-Burris | 94,330 | 5.39% | +4.27% | |
Majority | 254,341 | 14.58% | |||
Total votes | 1,743,921 | 100.00% | |||
Republican gain from Democratic | Swing |
He is married to Marsha Coats, Indiana's woman representative to the Republican National Committee. [61]
He received the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America's Charles G. Berwind Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. [62]
In 2015, Coats received the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Advancing American Democracy Award.
Coats is described as a "die-hard Chicago Cubs fan". He and Marsha Coats went to a Cubs game the day after their wedding. [63]
James Danforth Quayle is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981 and in the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 1989.
Richard Green Lugar was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party.
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John Bradley Ellsworth is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Indiana's 8th congressional district from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, he was the Democratic candidate for a seat in the United States Senate, but he was defeated by Dan Coats, a former Senator, by 55% to 40%.
Walter Paul Helmke, Jr. is an American politician, and the former president of the Washington, DC-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He held this position from July 2006 to July 10, 2011. He is a former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a former president of The United States Conference of Mayors. As of 2023, he is the last Republican to hold the office of mayor.
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The 2010 United States Senate election in Indiana took place on November 2, 2010, alongside 33 other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections to fill Indiana's class III United States Senate seat. Incumbent Democratic Senator Evan Bayh decided in February 2010 to retire instead of seeking a third term shortly after Dan Coats announced his candidacy. Bayh's announcement came one day before the filing deadline and no Democratic candidate submitted enough signatures by the deadline to run, so the State Democratic Party chose U.S. Congressman Brad Ellsworth as their nominee. The Libertarian Party nominated YMCA instructor Rebecca Sink-Burris, who had previously unsuccessfully run for this seat in 1998. Coats won the open seat, having previously held it from 1989 to 1999. Bayh later unsuccessfully ran for this seat again in 2016.
The 1992 United States Senate election in Indiana was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Coats won re-election to his first full term.
The 1980 United States Senate election in Indiana took place on November 4, 1980, along with elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as the presidential election, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Birch Bayh ran for a fourth term, but was defeated by Republican nominee, U.S. Representative Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle's swearing-in marked the first time since 1959 that Republicans held both United States Senate seats from Indiana.
The 1990 United States Senate special election in Indiana was a special election held on November 6, 1990, in order to fill the Class III seat in the United States Senate from Indiana for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 1993. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Coats, who was recently appointed to this seat two years prior, won election to serve out the remainder of the term.
Todd Christopher Young is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Indiana, a seat he has held since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Young previously served as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district. He was elected to the United States Senate in the November 8, 2016, general election, succeeding retiring Republican Dan Coats. From 2019 to 2021, he served as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Young was reelected in 2022.
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Dan Coats is a politician from the state of Indiana and a member of the Republican Party. He served four terms in the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989. In 1989, he was appointed to the United States Senate by Indiana Gov. Robert D. Orr following U.S. Sen. Dan Quayle's resignation from the Senate due to Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States. Coats served in the Senate from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. Coats served as the 5th Director of National Intelligence from March 2017-August 2019.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Indiana was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Indiana. The election was held alongside the presidential election and 2016 Indiana elections.
John Lee Ratcliffe is an American politician and attorney who served as the Director of National Intelligence from 2020 to 2021. He previously served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 4th district from 2015 to 2020. During his time in Congress, Ratcliffe was regarded as one of the most conservative members. Ratcliffe also served as Mayor of Heath, Texas, from 2004 to 2012 and acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from May 2007 to April 2008.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.