CIASenate confirms Brennan for CIA post

Published 7 March 2013

The Senate, on a 63-34 vote Thursday afternoon, confirmed John Brennan as the new director of the CIA. The vote came after Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), ended his 13-hour filibuster, saying he was now satisfied with the clarifications by Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the use of drones to kill American citizens. Paul’s tactics divided the Republican caucus, with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and John McCain (R-Arizona), who spoke on the Senate floor earlier today, mincing no words in denouncing Paul’s quest for clarifications. Paul’s filibuster is the ninth longest filibuster in Senate history.

The Senate, on a 63-34 vote Thursday afternoon, confirmed John Brennan as the new director of the CIA.

The vote came after Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) ended his 13-hour filibuster, saying he was now satisfied with the clarifications by Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the use of drones to kill American citizens.

Paul said that all he wanted was for the White House to confirm that it would not issue an order to use a drone to kill American citizens on U.S. soil.

Paul issued a statement Thursday afternoon in which he said that Holder had given him the assurances he was seeking. In the statement, Paul quotes Holder to say:

“It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: ‘Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.”

Paul said that following Holder’s clarifications, he saw no problem proceeding with a vote on Brennan’s nomination. “I’m quite happy with the answer, and I’m disappointed it took a month and a half and a root canal to get  it,” Paul told CNN. “But we did get the answer. And that’s what I’ve been asking all along.”

The Washington Post reports that the Senate voted soon after Paul gave the all-clear. First, senators cleared the 60-vote threshold required to cut off debate and bring Brennan’s nomination to a vote, with 81 senators voting to move forward.

In the vote on the nomination itself, Brennan was confirmed 63-34.

The Post notes that Paul’s tactics split the Republican caucus, with tea party-affiliated senators supporting Paul, and older generation of foreign policy hawks criticizing him.

Fox News reports that Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and John McCain (R-Arizona), who spoke on the Senate floor Thursday, minced no words in denouncing Paul’s quest for clarifications. “I don’t worry about [drones killing Americans],” Graham said. “Here’s what I worry about: that al-Qaeda has killed 2,958 of us and is going to add to the total if we let our guard down. And I will do everything in my power to protect this president — who I disagree with a lot — and future presidents in having an ill-informed Congress take over the legitimate authority under the Constitution and the laws of this land to be the commander in chief on behalf of all of us.”

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