The Senate voted to confirm Avril Haines to President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Director of National Intelligence on the evening of his inauguration. Haines, former deputy director of the CIA and the first woman to hold that job, is the first to ascend to Biden’s Cabinet, with 84 senators voting in favor and 10 voting against. “When it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics, ever,” Haines said in her opening statement. Democrats now hold a majority in the Senate with the swearing in of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).
