The vote comes amid escalating feuding between Democrats and the White House about intelligence agencies’ role in the investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Rep. John Ratcliffe as President Donald Trump’s top intelligence official, in a move aimed at ending nine months of reshuffling at the top of the nation’s spying establishment.
Lawmakers voted 49-44 in a party-line vote to confirm the Republican congressman from Texas as the sixth director of national intelligence since the office was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The split was a contrast to the 85-12 vote in 2017 that had confirmed Ratcliffe’s predecessor, former Republican Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, and comes amid an escalating feud between Trump and Democrats over the political use of intelligence.
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Senate confirms John Ratcliffe as the nation's spy chief, ending months of reshuffling atop the intelligence communityhttps://t.co/8PnlgGgfq2
— POLITICO (@politico) May 21, 2020
This is insane. And it's yet another reminder to vote out of power any party that would confirm this guy to anything. Every single one of them. https://t.co/3Agr0T67Sf
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 21, 2020
Not that it matters because nothing does, but John Ratcliffe does not meet the statutory requirement of expertise in national security to be DNI. But it totally owns the libs to have a guy who's going to be clueless against foreign intelligence operations.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 21, 2020
Straight party-line, including Romney aye, and Alexander, Burr, Murkowski NV. https://t.co/HpM0kfWmOx
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 22, 2020
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