Senate Overwhelmingly Confirms John Ratcliffe To Lead CIA Despite Dem Holdouts

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Thursday despite some Democratic lawmakers voting against the Trump nominee.

Senators approved Ratcliffe’s confirmation 74 to 25 with nearly half of Democratic lawmakers supporting President Donald Trump’s CIA nominee. Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman did not vote.

The bipartisan vote comes after Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy blocked Ratcliffe’s quick confirmation by objecting to a time agreement that would have expedited a vote on his nomination. Murphy’s refusal to give Ratcliffe a swift confirmation vote will likely be the first of many objections by Senate Democrats to drag out the confirmation process for Trump’s cabinet nominees.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, voted to advance Ratcliffe’s nomination out of committee 14-3 Monday evening with just three Democratic lawmakers, including Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, reportedly voting against the nominee.

“Our world is far too dangerous for any delay in having a Senate-confirmed leader in charge of the CIA,” Cotton and ranking member of the Senate Intel panel, Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said in a joint statement Monday. “We urge expeditious consideration of this important nomination.”

Ratcliffe will helm the CIA, the United States’ premier spy agency, during what he called “the most challenging national security environment in our nation’s history” in his opening remarks before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Jan. 15.

He pledged to adhere to the CIA’s core missions — including the collection of human intelligence — prioritize merit in hiring decisions and evaluate information without political bias during his confirmation hearing.

“We will collect intelligence — especially human intelligence — in every corner of the globe, no matter how dark or difficult,” Ratcliffe said in his testimony to the Senate Intel panel. “We will produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgement or infect our products. We will conduct covert action at the direction of the president, going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.”

He also pledged to focus the chief spy agency’s attention on the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

“The Chinese Communist Party remains committed to dominating the world economically, technologically and militarily,” Ratcliffe said. “President Trump has been an incredible leader on this issue, and it is encouraging that a bipartisan consensus has emerged in recent years. The recent creation of the CIA’s China Mission Center is an example of the good work that must continue.”

“He will bring valuable knowledge and experience to his new post,” Senate Majority Leader Thune said Tuesday on the Senate floor prior to Ratcliffe’s confirmation vote. “We need a return to fundamentals [at the CIA]. Last week during his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe promised to return to the CIA’s core mission. That means recruiting spies to collect intelligence and providing objective intelligence analysis without bias.”

Ratcliffe is a former Texas congressman who served in the House for nearly three terms prior to being tapped by Trump to lead the DNI in May 2020.

When the Senate voted on Ratcliffe’s nomination to lead the DNI in May 2020, zero Democratic lawmakers voted in favor of his confirmation.

The former director of the DNI notably pushed back against the since-debunked letter from 51 intelligence officials alleging the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop during his time leading the agency during the final year of Trump’s first term.

The Senate notably voted unanimously to approve former President Joe Biden’s CIA director, William Burns, in March 2021 without a roll-call vote.