Ratcliffe confirmed as next national intelligence director with narrowest approval vote in position's history

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.

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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.