The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday advanced the nomination of GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe on a party-line vote to be the next director of national intelligence, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said after the vote.
The committee’s closed-door vote on Ratcliffe’s nomination was 8-7, with all Democrats opposing the Texas Republican, according to a committee aide, a rare case of a partisan vote for a nominee to be the nation’s top spy. Ratcliffe’s confirmation hearing earlier this month was not a contentious one, but Democrats argue he’s too political and unqualified for the role overseeing the 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community.
Tuesday’s vote was the first Senate Intelligence Committee meeting chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the panel’s new chairman who has replaced Sen. Richard Burr after the North Carolina Republican stepped down from the position last week amid an FBI investigation into his stock trades.
Ratcliffe’s confirmation is all but assured on the Senate floor, with no Republicans appearing to consider opposing him. The timing of a vote on the Senate floor is not yet clear. If the Senate does not confirm him this week, the vote would take place next month after the Senate returns from a week-long Memorial Day recess.
Cornyn, a committee member in Senate GOP leadership, said he didn’t know when a floor vote would occur but hoped it would be as soon as possible.
Ratcliffe would be the Trump administration’s second permanent director of national intelligence – and the first since Dan Coats resigned in July 2019.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for the three-term congressman, who was initially picked by President Donald Trump to succeed Coats last year but withdrew after questions emerged from senators in both parties about exaggerations to his national security resume and his partisan record.
After the impeachment proceedings and trial, where Ratcliffe was a key congressional voice defending the President, Trump re-nominated Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence. Burr was cool to Ratcliffe’s initial nomination last year, but he said in March he would support the Texas Republican, helping assure Ratcliffe’s Senate confirmation.
Ratcliffe would replace Richard Grenell, a Trump ally and US ambassador to Germany who was put in the role earlier this year in an acting capacity and has frustrated Capitol Hill by instituting staffing changes during his short tenure without consulting Congress.
Grenell has also declassified documents related to “unmasking” requests Obama administration officials made during the Trump transition – which means they requested to see the identities of Americans masked in foreign intelligence reports – providing fodder for Trump and his allies to attack former President Barack Obama and Trump’s presumptive 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
At his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe emphasized his non-partisan work for the Justice Department under the George W. Bush administration. He was pressed by both Democrats and Republicans on being able to tell the President what he may not want to hear, and Ratcliffe pledged to provide unbiased intelligence.
“Whether you are talking about the President, whether you are talking about Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell – anyone’s views on what they want the intelligence to be will never impact the intelligence that I deliver. Never,” Ratcliffe said.
Burr said after the hearing that he believed Ratcliffe demonstrated he would “serve in an independent capacity.” But Democrats remained skeptical he would stand up to a President who has openly attacked the intelligence community.
“So many members asked him basically the same question, and he gave carefully crafted answers, not answers that at least left me with the notion that he’s going to protect the community that’s currently under assault,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat.