The Senate has just confirmed Rep. John Ratcliffe as Trump’s new Director of National Intelligence, marking and end to the short, but fruitful tenure of acting DNI Richard Grenell:
BREAKING: Senate confirms John Ratcliffe as next intelligence chief in divided vote https://t.co/DlLIeBs2GE pic.twitter.com/kg0i0s5n19
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 21, 2020
Senate confirms John Ratcliffe as next director of national intelligence in a 49-44 party-line vote. Ratcliffe replaces the current DNI Grenell, who is expected to shortly join the Trump re-election campaign.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 21, 2020
I’m kinda surprised (but not really) that it’s a partly-line vote. I would have thought more Democrats would have voted for Ratcliffe just to get Grenell out of the position considering all the Obama administration misdeeds he’s exposing. But then again, they probably knew it was safe to vote no since Republicans had all the necessary votes to confirm Ratcliffe.
According to the Senate Press Gallery, these are the Senators that did not vote today:
#Senate Confirmed, 49-44 (party line): John L. Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence.
Not voting: Senators Alexander, Burr, Markey, Murkowski, Murray, Rounds, & Sanders.
— Senate Press Gallery (@SenatePress) May 21, 2020