New President Donald Trump recommended a new person for Director of CIA and now the senate fulfilled his wish.
U.S. lawmakers confirmed a second key member of President Donald Trump’s national security team on Thursday, voting 74-25 to nominate John Ratcliffe as the 25th director of the nation’s largest spy agency.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence at the end of Trump’s first term, was sworn in about two hours later with Vice President JD Vance officiating.
Vance called Ratcliffe a “great patriot” and said he is someone the president trusts.
Ratcliffe will now lead an intelligence operation that Trump and Republicans have criticized for failing to gather intelligence on critical developments in countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Middle East, and for using available intelligence to defend the previous administration’s policies.
Ratcliffe hinted during his confirmation hearing last week that there would be significant changes, saying the spy agency would be more aggressive both in gathering human intelligence and in targeting U.S. adversaries.
“We will collect intelligence, particularly human intelligence, in every corner of the world, no matter how obscure or difficult it may be,” he told lawmakers at the time.
“We will conduct covert operations at the direction of the president, go places no one else can go, and do things no one else can do,” Ratcliffe said.
“To the brave CIA officers listening around the world: If all of this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference,” Ratcliffe added.
“If not, then it’s time to find a new line of work,” he said.
The confirmation vote came three days after Trump took office and after a plea from the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee for a quick vote on Ratcliffe’s nomination to head the CIA.
“Our world is too dangerous to delay putting a Senate-confirmed leader at the helm of the CIA,” Senators Tom Cotton and Mark Warner said in a statement Monday after their committee picked Ratcliffe by a 14-3 margin.
Ratcliffe promised lawmakers that under his leadership, the CIA would provide intelligence without political bias and would not fire employees based on their political views or perceived loyalty to Trump.
He also pledged to reopen the CIA investigation into the causes of Havana Syndrome – the name for a series of brain injuries and other serious health problems that have affected hundreds of U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials.
And he expressed support for maintaining controversial U.S. surveillance powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), calling them an indispensable tool.
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