U.S. Senate confirms Biden intel pick after Republicans cite Huawei link

This post was originally published on this site

https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/news/LYNXMPEE2Q1GT_M.jpg

The vote was 55 to 45 to confirm Fonzone. Five Republicans joined Biden’s fellow Democrats to support the nomination.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton said the Huawei ties were a reason to question Fonzone’s judgment. “He (Fonzone) had spent most of his career in government, primarily in national security roles. I cannot imagine that he was not aware of the China threat in general or the Huawei threat in particular,” Cotton said before the vote.

Fonzone had told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he did less than 50 hours of legal work for both Huawai and China’s Ministry of Commerce while working at the law firm Sidley Austin.

Many officials in Washington have targeted Huawei for years as a security threat to U.S. interests.