John Ratcliffe’s nomination for the position of the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was approved by the US Senate. This is the second person named by Donald Trump to be accepted. During his previous service as intelligence chief, Ratcliffe was criticized for politicizing his role. In nominating him for the new position, Trump praised his achievements to date.
74 senators voted to approve the nomination of John Ratcliffe as the new head of the CIA, 25 of them voted against it.
Ratcliffe is a former Republican congressman and prosecutor who served as director of national intelligence in the first administration of Donald Trump (2017-2021), coordinating the work of all US services. In January of this year, during a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, he announced that his agency would focus on competing with China, which he considered “by far the greatest threat to US national security.”
According to Trump, he “told the truth to the American people.” Criticism was also heard
In announcing Ratcliffe’s candidacy in November, Trump noted that he was different in his so-called self. Russiagate – the Trump team’s ties to the Russians, “exposes it as Hillary Clinton’s campaign operation.”
Trump also claimed that the former Republican congressman was the only person who “told the truth” about the content obtained from the laptop of Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden during the 2020 election campaign, contrary to suspicions that Russian services were behind the attack. told the Americans”. publishing content.
John Ratcliffe JIM Poyluch/PAP/EPA
During his year-long tenure as head and coordinator of all US intelligence services, Ratcliffe was criticized for the politicization of intelligence and the selective release of intelligence. It was also linked to an unconfirmed U.S. intelligence assessment by Russian intelligence that Hillary Clinton in 2016 tried to start a scandal over the Trump team’s ties to the Russians in order to divert attention from hackers stealing Democratic emails.
However, Ratcliffe was considered one of Trump’s less controversial nominees and was confirmed second only to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to win unanimous support in the House.
Main photo: JIM LO SCALZO/PAP/EPA
