Trump delays Jay Clayton’s DNI confirmation amid push for voting and intelligence legislation

There was confusion in Congress after President Trump announced that his pick for director of national intelligence would not show up for his scheduled confirmation hearing. The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, said he doesn't know whether Clayton's nomination has been postponed or withdrawn. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News.

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday postponed Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence after President Trump said in a social media post he wouldn't appear. In the announcement, Mr. Trump made multiple demands to Congress. CBS News' Taurean Small has more.

President Trump bigfooted Senate Republicans into postponing Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing Wednesday in a convoluted effort to push his priority election integrity bill.

The Senate was set to confirm President Donald Trump’s new director of national intelligence as soon as Thursday, but Trump threw a wrench into Leader John Thune’s plans by stating nominee Jay Clayton cannot be confirmed until the Senate approves his replacement as U.S. attorney. Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning that Jamie...

The president just scrambled the last week of negotiations in Congress to abet his dead voter ID bill.Donald Trump cancelled the Senate confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton via a Truth Social post Wednesday, just hours before it was set to take place. Trump had tapped Clayton earlier this month to run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in place of acting Director Bill Pulte. Democrats had argued that even temporarily appointing Pulte, a housing regulator, was illegal, since he had no national security experience to bring to the job. (For the record, neither does Clayton.)As a result, Democrats completely stalled negotiations over FISA Section 702, a statute that allows federal agencies such as the NSA and the CIA to surveil foreigners on U.S. soil without warrants. But even without Pulte’s name in the mix, negotiations had stalled over the FISA section as both chambers failed to pass an extension.And Trump has undoubtedly only made matters worse by involving himself in the process. In a lengthy rant Wednesday, Trump baselessly lamented that Republicans had advanced Clayton’s nomination without any concrete assurances from Democrats. He then hitched the FISA section’s renewal onto his Save America Act, which Republicans have warned him dozens of times has no chance of passing the Senate. That legislation hinges on Trump’s conspiracy theory that noncitizens are voting (against him) in U.S. elections.“Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA—So, the Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal,” Trump wrote. “Therefore, to add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it. Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap.” The Save America Act sparked nationwide controversy earlier this year, particularly over a detail in the bill that would have made it more difficult for married women to vote. The backlash on Capitol Hill was grave, so much so that it gummed up efforts to fund Homeland Security for several months. Republicans eventually had to bail on the package to end the congressional gridlock.The Save America Act suggests numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, including line items that would abolish mail-in voting, require voters to bring proof of citizenship and proof of residency to register to vote, require voter ID, and mandate voter roll purges every 30 days, an enormous bureaucratic task that would place undue burdens on local election officials. The measure would also add a federal law to prevent men from competing in women’s sports, and a ban on “transgender mutilation surgery.”Trump noted that the pause on Clayton’s Senate confirmation would also interrupt the rest of the pipeline: in the meantime, Pulte would remain as the acting DNI, while Jamie McDonald—a litigation partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell—would wait to replace Clayton as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.Senator Tom Cotton, who chairs the chamber’s intelligence committee, ignored the president’s bluster. He noted on his X account that the president’s influence did not extend to the Senate confirmation hearing process.“Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee,” Cotton wrote. “We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination.”This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton to be the next Director of National Intelligence has been canceled.