Intelligence director hearing cancelled as Trump pushes for controversial voter bill

The Senate Intelligence Committee postponed a nomination hearing for Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence hours after President Donald Trump declared the session would not go forward, the panel’s chairman said.

Early Wednesday morning, Trump said the hearing would be “canceled” until the Senate could confirm the new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who would be Clayton’s replacement. 

“It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who chairs the intelligence committee. “Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”

Republicans were hoping to fast-track confirmation of Clayton to the position after Trump appointed Bill Pulte to serve as DNI in an acting capacity. Clayton has drawn positive support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats warned that Pulte’s role in the president’s mortgage fraud reviews last year could foreshadow an abuse of intelligence tools to target the president’s political opponents, leading to the historic lapse of a key surveillance authority earlier this month. 

Confirming Clayton would have helped reshore support from key Democrats for the surveillance power. But Trump also defended that the spying authority — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — should not pass without the concurrent passage of a controversial voter identification bill that doesn’t have enough support in Congress.

“National security cannot be governed by social media post,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the high chamber’s intelligence committee. “The president’s latest intervention only underscores a simple reality: the biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House itself.”

The postponement guarantees Pulte would begin as acting DNI starting this Friday. Trump has previously said he wants Pulte to further downsize the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and continue election integrity investigations launched by prior spy chief Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard is set to depart soon. She announced the plans to do so weeks ago, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.