Washington — Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that he’s hopeful the Senate can confirm President Trump’s new nominee for director of national intelligence this week, amid an impasse over the president’s controversial pick to serve as acting intelligence chief that resulted in the expiration of a key spy authority late last week.
“We will get Clayton, I hope, confirmed as quickly as possible. We will then move very quickly to get FISA reauthorized,” the Virginia Democrat said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
The president announced on Thursday that he was nominating Jay Clayton, the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the next director of national intelligence as Tulsi Gabbard resigning as director of national intelligence, citing husband’s cancer diagnosis. The move came after Democrats, and some Republicans, had balked at Mr. Trump’s selection of the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
Democrats refused to agree to an extension of a warrantless surveillance authority under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as long as Pulte was set to assume the role. Then, with just hours before the spy authority was set to expire, the president announced Clayton as his long-term pick for intelligence chief. But the move came too late for Congress to intervene, with the House having already left town.
The Senate will return on Monday, where GOP leaders have indicated that they plan to move quickly on Clayton’s nomination. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Warner said “my hope is, if we can get unanimous consent, we could even get him confirmed this week,” adding that he hopes that the president would ask Gabbard to stay on until Clayton can be confirmed, or allow her deputy to take the reins. Democrats are expected to oppose any reauthorization of the spy authority unless Pulte is out of the picture.
The intelligence committee vice chairman outlined his concerns about Pulte at the helm, citing his lack of national security experience and the exposure he would have to the nation’s classified programs.
“Out of ignorance, he might give away information. I’ve had heads of our intelligence community say to us they’re terrified of showing him information. I’ve had foreign governments express huge concern,” Warner said. “One thing we know about Bill Pulte is he will do whatever Donald Trump says. He was able to weaponize private mortgage insurance information. Giving him the keys to the 18 intelligence agencies would be a disaster and a national security threat.”
Mr. Trump expressed exasperation over Democrats’ position on Sunday afternoon, writing in a post on Truth Social, “Why are the Dumocrats so afraid of of Bill Pulte at DNI???” In another post, the president said he’s opposed to reauthorizing the spy authority unless an elections bill he’s long pushed for is attached — which Democrats widely oppose.
As for Clayton, Warner said “I know Jay, I think he’s got the right temperament,” though he noted that he wants to question the nominee about maintaining election integrity.
Warner acknowledged that the FISA authority’s expiration poses a “national security risk.” But he argued it occurred because the president “did not put forward Clayton or anyone else that was legitimate until the clock had run out.”
Warner said “none of this needed to happen,” arguing that the expiration wouldn’t have occurred if the president would have announced Clayton as his pick “a few days earlier.”
“If there is something that happens, God forbid the responsibility lies with one man,” Warner said. “Donald Trump.”
