Senators on Capitol Hill were sounding the alarms after President Donald Trump threw a massive wrench in the push to quickly hold the confirmation process for Jay Clayton to become Director of National Intelligence.
The president, 80, wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday that he was canceling the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton to become DNI just hours before it was set to take place, leaving senators confused and scrambling.
Trump wrote that “Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence” until his demands are met, some of which were non-starters in the Senate.
Senators warned the president could be attempting to delay a quick Clayton confirmation in order to keep Pulte, a Trump loyalist who has gone after the president’s perceived political enemies, in the intelligence job longer.
“The conspiracy theory explanation would be that he wants Bill Pulte to extract as much information as possible to corrupt the intelligence community,” said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
“Given the corruption in this administration, it has a certain seeming legitimacy,” Blumenthal added. “I have no hard evidence for it, except circumstantial facts, which are that he’s doing something utterly insane in keeping Pulte there because he is corrupt, unqualified, and dangerous.”
Senate Intelligence Ranking Member Mark Warner called Pulte a “security risk” and noted that Senate Republicans wanted to move quickly to put Clayton in the position.
“I think he wants him to wreak havoc,” Warner warned of Pulte.
“Bill Pulte, to our knowledge, doesn’t even have a security clearance,” Warner said at a separate press conference. “The only thing he’s shown is a willingness to take confidential information in terms of private mortgage information and weaponize it.”
He also suggested the president could have pulled the entire thing to distract from the Iran deal, about which senators have received little information.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Republicans to work with them to “stop Trump and Pulte from meddling with our national security” and said the intelligence community cannot be entrusted to Trump’s “personal attack dog.”
Republican senators also expressed frustration on Wednesday that the Senate was not moving quickly on Clayton’s confirmation, leaving Pulte in the role of acting DNI.
“Jay Clayton was on the brink of, I think, having a very good hearing and probably even getting some Democrat support,” said GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.
The North Carolina Republican slammed Pulte as a “sycophant” and argued he was never a credible choice.
In his post early on Wednesday, Trump complained about Republicans moving fast to get Clayton confirmed, writing, “the Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton, current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA.”
Democrats have been pushing back against reauthorizing controversial Section 702 of the spy law after Pulte was named acting DNI.
The president then insisted Pulte, who has zero intelligence experience, would only be in the job temporarily and named Clayton his nominee to fill the position permanently last week after a vote on FISA in the House failed. The provision of the law expired a day later.
In his post on Wednesday, Trump demanded FISA be passed with the SAVE America Act, which does not have the necessary. He also said Clayton’s nomination would not go forward until his new pick for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James McDonald, the president’s personal attorney, is approved.
The move led to some confusion as Clayton has been meeting with senators on the Hill this week and had a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
“Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee. We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton first wrote in a post on X.
But he followed up soon after that the hearing had been scrapped less than three hours later.
“It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today. 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,” Cotton wrote.
But Trump speaking in France on Wednesday said he would keep Pulte on as acting DNI “as long as it takes” and accused Senate Republicans of doing a “rush act” and said they “didn’t get anything for it.”
