Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, has stated that the committee intends to proceed with Jay Clayton's hearing as scheduled, defying a surprise announcement by Donald Trump that the hearing was 'cancelled'.
Cotton wrote on X: '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.'
Trump abruptly derailed the confirmation process for Clayton as the US's top intelligence chief early today, in a move that will allow his controversial selection for acting director of national security, Bill Pulte, to assume the role and remain in place for at least several weeks until Clayton is confirmed.
The president had pushed the Senate to confirm Clayton after his appointment of Pulte as acting DNI sparked bipartisan pushback and stalled his administration's push for renewal of a key power of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa).
In a surprising post on Truth Social in today's early morning hours, Trump declared 'we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI Today'. The president doesn't technically have the power to cancel a Senate hearing, and Cotton has signalled it will go ahead unless Trump intervenes.
Trump said that Republicans had rushed the Clayton nomination so quickly that 'Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA'. He also said he wanted to see Clayton's replacement as US attorney completed before Clayton became DNI, and further complicated the situation by asserting he did not want the surveillance act approved unless it included the Save America Act, a controversial and restrictive voting bill.
