Senate approves John Brennan as new CIA director

Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his nomination to be the Director of the CIA.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed John Brennan as the Obama administration’s next director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Senate voted 63-34 in favor of Brennan, overcoming Republican Senator Rand Paul’s attempt to slow the White House counter-terrorism advisor from becoming the next head of the CIA.

Paul, who spent nearly 13 hours speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, was irate about the reluctance of Obama administration officials to declare that “targeted killings” of American citizens on U.S. soil were unconstitutional.