Senate confirms John Ratcliffe to be Trump’s CIA director

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to confirm John Ratcliffe as the next CIA director under President Donald Trump, approving the second high-level appointment for the new administration.

The vote was 74-25 in favor of Ratcliffe, a former congressman from Texas who served as Trump’s director of national intelligence for the last eight months of his first term.

Republican leaders failed to achieve unanimous support to fast-track Ratcliffe’s nomination to the floor earlier this week and had to jump through some procedural hoops.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he opposed Ratcliffe “not because of our political difference, which of course exists — but because I am deeply worried that Mr. Ratcliffe will be unable to stand up to people like Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, who are known to falsify intelligence. As CIA Director, Mr. Ratcliffe will have to make decisions based on intelligence and fact.”

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, is Trump’s nominee to be the director of national intelligence.

During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe promised to keep politics out of decisions involving intelligence and said he wouldn’t use loyalty tests as a basis for hiring or firing CIA personnel.

In May 2020, Ratcliffe was confirmed to be Trump’s DNI by a narrow vote in the Senate of 49-44, facing sweeping Democratic opposition due to concerns about his qualifications and concerns about exaggerating national security credentials on his resume.

Thursday’s vote came three days after the Senate voted unanimously to fast-track and confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state hours after Trump was inaugurated.

Other Trump nominees might have an even harder time than Ratcliffe in receiving swift votes, as any one senator can prevent that. Any nominee who faces an objection could take several days to get a confirmation vote in the Senate.

But all nominees require 51 votes to be confirmed — or 50, with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has teed up votes next on Trump’s nominees for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem. Trump’s pick to lead the Treasury Department, Scott Bessent, is expected to come up next.

Thune has threatened to keep the Senate in session over the weekend if Democrats don’t relent and allow speedy votes, accusing them of “stalling President Trump’s nominees.”

“If Democrats want to spend their nights and weekends taking votes on uncontroversial nominees, we can do it that way,” he said in a floor speech Thursday. “But one way or the other, these nominees will be confirmed.”