Trump throws top intelligence post into chaos — and Senate Republicans relent after initial defiance
The future of American national security was thrown into chaos Wednesday after President Donald Trump attempted to unilaterally put a Senate confirmation hearing on hold.
Senate Republicans initially pushed back, with some of Trump’s most loyal allies signaling they planned to move ahead with the confirmation hearing for a top intelligence post anyway, despite the president’s directive.
But the rebellion was short-lived.
Just a couple of hours after Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote that his committee would proceed with Jay Clayton’s hearing to be Director of National Intelligence “as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination,” Senate Republicans relented and postponed the hearing.
The whole ordeal became just the latest example of how Trump’s unpredictable approach continues to test GOP lawmakers — without fully breaking their loyalty to him.
Just before 4 a.m. on Wednesday, the president wrote that a scheduled hearing to consider Clayton’s nomination would be “canceled,” and that the nomination wouldn’t be moving forward until Clayton’s replacement as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is “approved.”
At first, senators pushed back. Cotton indicated he would move forward with the hearing, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., backed him up.
“And then from there on, we’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on kind of what the White House position is on this,” Thune said.
When Thune was asked why he thought Trump was trying to delay the hearing, Thune’s answer indicated that thinning patience: “Good question.”
But by early Wednesday afternoon, Senate Republicans had reversed course. The hearing was postponed, with no clear timeline for when it will be rescheduled.
The Clayton nomination has become the lynchpin to unlocking the future of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (or FISA) program, with Democrats refusing to renew the controversial Section 702 surveillance program until Trump’s temporary appointment of Bill Pulte as the acting head of national intelligence is no longer a possibility.
Democrats fear that Pulte, with no intelligence resume but plenty of experience in following Trump’s orders, would be little more than a tool for the president — likely to use the post to go after the Trump’s perceived Democratic enemies in the run up to the midterms.
Recommended
Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.
