President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold his director of National Intelligence nominee — and keep a housing executive with no national security experience in that post indefinitely — unless senators agree to pass his voter ID bill and also confirm another of his personal lawyers to be a top federal prosecutor.
Trump told reporters at the Group of Seven summit in France that Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte, 38, could remain as acting DNI for “as long as it takes” for senators to confirm Sullivan and Cromwell law firm partner James McDonald as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
McDonald, who has been representing Trump in a series of lawsuits since the president returned to power last year, had been tapped to replace Jay Clayton, the current head of SDNY who Trump nominated for the DNI role and who had been set to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday for a fast-track confirmation hearing as Trump’s nominee to replace Tulsi Gabbard.
On Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Clayton’s confirmation hearing would be canceled.
“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,” he said. “While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”
Clayton, who served as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, was expected to easily win senators’ approval as part of a bipartisan agreement to confirm him before Pulte’s planned first day as acting DNI on Friday. The Senate would also approve a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — an important intelligence collection authority which expired last week.
But Trump complained that the agreement was “like a rush act by the Democrats” and demanded that senators attach the election restriction bill he calls the Save America Act despite the fact that the bill lacks enough support to avoid a filibuster.
“Whey said they were going to approve FISA, and I said, but we want FISA approved, but we want the Save America Act approved — voter ID, proof of citizenship, no mail-in ballots, with exceptions ... it's not a lot, the Save America Act, and that can be passed any way they want to pass it, but I'm not going to sign FISA unless it's [included] and this was like a rush act. It was a rush act by the Democrats,” he said.
Trump suggested that the opposition to Pulte was only on the part of Democrats in the upper chamber and posited that the opposition party is fearful of the federal housing boss for political reasons rather than his utter lack of national security experience.
“Why are they afraid of this guy? I mean, they're so afraid of him, they'll do anything not to have pulled to go in there. He's a very capable guy, and they're worried about that,” he said.
Trump’s comments came just hours after he called for senators to cancel Clayton’s confirmation hearing, taking the legs out from what should have been an easy confirmation process.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), excoriated Trump for the move.
“If somebody told the president exactly how Jay Clayton got the permanent position for U.S. Attorney and exactly what this was likely to do to 702 reauthorization and he did it anyway, he made a colossal mistake,” Tillis, who is not seeking re-election, told The Independent.
“We basically blinded our intelligence community because 60% of the president's daily brief comes from 702,” Sen. Johns Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters. Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been at odds with Trump ever since Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary challenger, leading to Corny’s loss last month.
“Part of the problem is not President Trump, it's us making unrealistic promises when they're not attained, then criticizing one another,” he said.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social Wednesday morning as Washington was just waking up and with hours to go until Clayton’s hearing was set to begin.
Trump accused his party of showing their hand too early in a political blunder.
“The Republicans agreed with Dumocrats to remove very fair, and talented, William Pulte, from serving as Acting DNI in return for getting FISA approved by the Dumocrats,” Trump posted.
“However, 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,” he said. “Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal.”
The panel’s ranking Democrat, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, also slammed the move.
“To do national security by tweet puts Americans in grave danger, and I just hope and pray that others will push back,” Warner told a gaggle of reporters. He specifically criticized Trump for attaching an unrelated piece of legislation to FISA.
Trump said he did not want to give up Clayton before the Senate confirmed McDonald and called for him to be rapidly “blue-slipped,” a process where senators from the nominee’s home state sign off to approve on the nominee.
“Because of the ridiculous views of Republicans on blue slipping (Dumocrats are often willing to nix it), I may not be able to get the extraordinary Sullivan & Cromwell Partner, Jamie, approved, and I don’t want to take Jay Clayton away from the great job he is doing until Jamie is in place,” Trump said.
Trump has long called for the Senate to get rid of the blue slip process, which he complained has prevented him from picking nominees for U.S. attorneys along with judicial nominees for states represented by Democrats. New York has two Democratic senators, which would allow Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to have veto power over McDonald.
The president also reiterated that he would not sign the FISA reauthorization unless it also included the SAVE America Act, Republicans’ proposed legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The announcement virtually guarantees that FISA will not be reauthorized.
“Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” he said. “Regarding the approval of our Great Patriot, Jay Clayton, we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney. In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.”
Trump’s announcement blows up what should have been an easy confirmation. Republicans signaled openness to confirming Clayton.
Republicans had objected to not only Pulte’s lack of experience and qualifications, but also the fact he used his office to target former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Trump’s other perceived political enemies.
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