Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) has won the Senate's approval to become the next director of national intelligence — barely.
The Senate voted 49-44 to approve President Trump's nominee for the position, along party lines, with several senators not voting. That means Ratcliffe ended up with the smallest number of approval votes in the DNI position's 15-year history, The Washington Post notes.
Ratcliffe also only narrowly passed a Senate Intelligence Committee vote to head to the Senate floor earlier this week. He faced questioning over his propensity toward "deep state" conspiracy theories and his past criticisms of the intelligence community, but rejected those theories outright when speaking to the committee.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Acting officials have filled the DNI spot since Dan Coats resigned last summer, first Joseph Maguire and then Richard Grennell. Ratcliffe was nominated to fill Coats' spot shortly after Coats announced his resignation, but Trump pulled his nomination after Ratcliffe was criticized for his lack of qualifications for the role.
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
