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Sen. Elissa Slotkin on intel chief's confirmation hearing and election integrity
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin on intel chief's confirmation hearing and election integrity Sen. Elissa Slotkin on intel chief's confirmation hearing and election integrity NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan about the fight over the confirmation of a new national intelligence director, the renewal of spy tools and election integrity.
Open article →Trump delays intel chief's confirmation in an attempt to advance voting bill Trump delays intel chief's confirmation in an attempt to advance voting bill President Trump is causing headaches for Senate Republicans once again — this time over his pick for director of national intelligence. A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: President Trump is putting Senate Republicans on the spot again, this time over his pick for director of national intelligence. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: OK. It's a little complicated because the president is stopping himself from installing someone in office. But here's what we think is happening. Bill Pulte, a man with a record of weaponizing government information to undermine Trump's perceived foes, will serve as the temporary boss of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies. President Trump does not want his full-time pick for that role, Jay Clayton, to move ahead with Senate confirmation until the Senate confirms a replacement for the job. Clayton is leaving U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. MARTÍNEZ: In a few minutes, we'll hear from Senator Elissa Slotkin on Clayton's possible confirmation. But first, NPR congress reporter Eric McDaniel's covering this. So, Eric, take us through what the president is asking of GOP senators. ERIC MCDANIEL, BYLINE: So, in an overnight post on Wednesday, Trump made two demands. They both show his relationship with Senate Republicans is breaking down. Let's start with the first demand. Trump said he would hold back his own director of national intelligence until the pick's replacement is confirmed, like you heard. That leaves the very controversial Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence for now. MARTÍNEZ: So why is he so controversial? MCDANIEL: Yeah. He used his first role in the administration as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to assail folks who'd frustrated the president, like Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Pulte accused Schiff of mortgage fraud, which Schiff denies. And Democrats are worried Pulte would do worse with access to the entire government surveillance toolkit. And Republicans are frustrated that he lacks any national security or intelligence background. MARTÍNEZ: And the president won't let the confirmation of his full-time pick move ahead? MCDANIEL: No. He says it's because he wants a backfill person in place. But he also says the Senate is trying to deprive Pulte of a turn at the job. Trump has said he wants Pulte to declassify 2020 election documents and fire folks at the DNI office. MARTÍNEZ: OK. So you mentioned Trump had two demands. MCDANIEL: The second is for Republicans to pass his election security law. Senate Republicans have tried twice and failed twice because the Save America Act doesn't have enough support to become law. As the top Senate Republican John Thune said, the U.S. Senate is bound by arithmetic. And they do not have the votes to overcome the chamber's de facto 60-vote majority required to pass legislation. But because they haven't passed it, Trump says he'll block the renewal of a key spy tool, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the government says underpins 60% of the president's daily intelligence brief. MARTÍNEZ: So why would the president block a key spy tool or hold open a seat in his own cabinet? MCDANIEL: I mean, things have broken down. First, we've got three coequal branches of government. The Senate can't do what Trump wants because they don't have the votes. U.S. elections are also already secure. The president keeps making the demands anyway. Second, the Senate is supposed to be able to vet cabinet nominees, but the president's decision to block the confirmation of the full-time guide deprives them of that constitutional responsibility. This is not how checks and balances are supposed to work, but it is where we find ourselves. MARTÍNEZ: And here's the thing. Senate Republicans have been here before, not that long ago. MCDANIEL: I mean, I've recently been here in studio to talk about the president's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund the president hoped to use to issue payments to compensate people he says have been victimized by the government. There was also $1 billion the president wanted to fund security of his White House ballroom project. Both of those are varying degrees of defeated. But they were both massive headaches for the Senate Republicans and nearly derailed funding for one of the president's own priorities, immigration enforcement. MARTÍNEZ: All this feels like it could be a little messy, Eric. I mean, where is it heading now? MCDANIEL: A, I don't know. Presumably, the Senate tries to get Jay Clayton's replacement as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York confirmed quickly to unlock some things. But the goalposts keep moving further away, and I imagine there are still some surprises that lie ahead. MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Eric McDaniel. Eric, thanks a lot. MCDANIEL: Thank you. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Open article →Senate postpones confirmation hearing for intel chief after Trump's call to delay The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says that the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence has been postponed after President Trump called on Republicans to hit pause on the nominee. The announcement from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., followed an overnight post from President Trump, who said he is delaying the nomination and blocking the renewal of a surveillance tool at the center of the U.S. intelligence apparatus in order to pressure the Senate to advance a long-stalled voting bill and also advance another of his nominees for a separate position. "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. A little more than two hours earlier, Cotton had said the committee would move ahead with the hearing "unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination." The confirmation hearing had been set for Wednesday afternoon. Trump's attempt to derail the confirmation came as a surprise social media post in the middle of the night less than 12 hours before Clayton was scheduled to appear before his confirmation hearing. Trump, who is currently at the G7 Summit in France, issued his demands in a post just before 4 a.m. eastern on Truth Social. In the post, Trump said the plan to quickly approve Clayton was part of a deal with Democrats to derail his previous, temporary pick, Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence experience and has been criticized as a political attack dog for the president. He went on to say he is demanding that reauthorization of the surveillance tool known as FISA Section 702 must be tied to passage of the SAVE America ACT, a GOP voting bill that would require voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, when they register to vote. The legislation failed in the Senate earlier this month. "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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump concluded. It is a dramatic reversal for a nomination that had the potential to speed through the Senate, possibly with bipartisan support, and exposes a notable rift between the Republican-controlled Senate and president of the same party. Who is Jay Clayton? Clayton currently serves as a federal prosecutor, in charge of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. In that role, he's overseen a number of high-profile cases including the indictment and arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was previously confirmed by the Senate to serve as the head of the Securities and Exchange commission during President Trump's first term. The director of national intelligence leads the intelligence community across 18 agencies and organizations and advises the president on national security issues, including through drafting and delivering the President's Daily Brief. Senate lawmakers hoped for a speedy confirmation for Clayton, aiming to have him sworn in by June 19, the date that President Trump has said that his controversial pick for acting director, Bill Pulte, will step into the role on a temporary basis. Controversy over Bill Pulte, Trump's interim pick Pulte's appointment earlier this month was met with dismay on Capitol Hill. He currently serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and would enter the job with no national intelligence experience. He has used his current sub-cabinet level role to assail the president's perceived foes. He was a cheerleader for Trump's pressure campaign that sought to push then-Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to resign. Pulte has also used his social media following to broadcast accusations that several of the president's perceived enemies had committed mortgage fraud, including Fed official Lisa Cook, New York's Democratic Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Each has denied wrongdoing. Given his record, Democrats and even some Republicans worry he will weaponize the key national security role. The uproar over Pulte contributed to the expiration on Friday of a nearly two decade-old spy law that underpins a great deal of U.S. intelligence gathering. The president has suggested that Pulte will serve in the role for some amount of time. Trump told the Wall Street Journal he hopes to see Pulte declassify documents related to the 2020 election and downsize the agency. Pressure to move quickly Senators appeared highly motivated to move Clayton quickly through the process before Trump's sudden intervention. They had hoped to prevent or minimize Pulte's time in the job. Clayton's confirmation hearing date was set within hours of his nomination to the post. If confirmed, Clayton would succeed outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation last month citing her husband's cancer diagnosis. During her brief tenure, Gabbard had been a controversial director. A former Democrat, she was nominated to the role despite her lack of experience in U.S. intelligence and remarks supporting autocratic leaders in Syria and Russia. She was ultimately confirmed in a near-party line vote. While serving as director of national intelligence, charged with presenting an objective view of the U.S. intelligence community's assessments to policymakers including the president, Gabbard attended an FBI raid on a Georgia election office that has been at the heart of Trump's baseless election fraud conspiracy theories.
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