Trump Gets His Second Cabinet Member

The Senate on Thursday confirmed John Ratcliffe as CIA director, President Trump's nominee to lead America's premier spy agency and his second nominee to win Senate approval. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Trump's first term and is the first person to have held that position and the top post at the CIA . The Texas Republican is a former federal prosecutor who emerged as a fierce Trump defender while serving as a congressman during Trump's first impeachment, the AP reports. The vote was 74-25, with many Democrats voting no.

At his Senate hearing last week, Ratcliffe said the CIA must do better when it comes to using technology such as artificial intelligence to confront adversaries including Russia and China. He said the US needed to improve its intelligence capabilities while also ensuring the protection of Americans' civil rights. Ratcliffe said that if confirmed, he would push the CIA to do more to harness technologies such as AI and quantum computing while expanding use of human intelligence collection. "We're not where we're supposed to be," Ratcliffe said. Former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was confirmed earlier this week as secretary of state, the first member of Trump's Cabinet.

(More John Ratcliffe stories.)