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Senate Approves Hegseth, Ratcliffe Nominations

The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense last night, but it required Vice President J.D. Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote. Besides GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), former party leader Mitch McConnell also voted against Hegseth, in a surprise reversal after having voted to advance his nomination on Jan. 23, reported The Hill. He said he didn’t have confidence in Hegseth’s ability to lead the nation’s military at a time of growing threats abroad.

On Jan. 23, the Senate voted 74 to 25 to approve the nomination of John Ratcliffe to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. According to Politico, he faced only modest resistance from Senate Democrats, “who had stalled Ratcliffe’s nomination for days over concerns that he would politicize the agency’s work—as President Donald Trump has called for overhauls in the nation’s intelligence community.”