Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick for intelligence chief, cleared a critical committee vote on Tuesday as Republicans banded together to send his nomination to the Senate floor.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that Clayton advanced through his panel in a 9-8 vote, a margin that likely means all Democrats voted against his nomination.
Two days earlier, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the committee, said that he would oppose Clayton, citing his performance in last week’s confirmation hearing.
Warner had initially signaled openness to Clayton, but said he was evasive on the 2020 election results, a sore spot for Trump, as well as Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at an FBI raid in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year.
Gabbard was Trump’s director of national intelligence until Bill Pulte took over the role on an acting basis in June.
“I’ve known Jay for a long time. I like Jay,” Warner said on CBS News. “I worked well with him when he was at the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission]. But I was bitterly disappointed by his performance in front of my committee.”
Pulte’s tenure has been especially controversial, given his mortgage fraud investigations of prominent Democrats as Trump’s top housing official. He also lacks experience in national security and intelligence.
For that reason, Republicans were initially eager to prevent Pulte from taking over and attempted to fast-track Clayton’s nomination, seeing his appointment as the off-ramp to Democrats’ refusal to renew a key spy program.
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That sense of urgency dissipated, however, once Trump blocked Clayton from being quickly confirmed. Last month, the president abruptly announced the cancellation of Clayton’s Intelligence Committee hearing, leaving Republicans to punt the vote until after the July 4 recess.
Clayton currently serves as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and led the Securities and Exchange Commission in Trump’s first term, at the time receiving bipartisan support for his confirmation as chairman.