John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence during President Trump’s first term, has been confirmed by the Senate as its new CIA chief – the first person to hold both positions.
The Senate approved the nomination Thursday by a vote of 74 to 25.
Ratcliffe is one of the few figures Trump has tapped to return for his second term. The conservative former Texas congressman had been a strong Trump supporter in 2019, when Trump said on social media that he wanted Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence, the position responsible for overseeing the country’s 18 intelligence agencies. country.
ODNI’s role is more supervisory, overseeing all of the country’s 18 intelligence services. Unlike the CIA, it does not engage in direct intelligence collection. This means, for example, that the CIA collects and ODNI aggregates information from different agencies to develop products like the President’s Daily Brief.
Many Democrats opposed it at the time, saying Ratcliffe lacked experience and his main qualification was fierce loyalty to Trump. Democrats raised similar concerns on his commitment to the president on the law this time.
Critics said Ratcliffe adopted Trump’s views on Russia and downplayed potential threats emanating from that country. Ratcliffe placed more emphasis on China, a position that is also consistent with Trump’s – and shared by the entire intelligence community.