President Donald Trump has left the Senate in a state of “dysfunction” and Republicans scrambling over how to recover after he abruptly upended the confirmation of a high-profile Cabinet nominee.
Trump’s Wednesday decision to call off Jay Clayton’s hearing to be the next director of national intelligence evoked a fresh wave of frustration from Republicans, who hoped the nominee could break the gridlock on an expired foreign spy program and saw his announcement, which came in the middle of the night and hours before the testimony, as another example of unnecessary chaos.
“It’s just another kink in the slinky that makes no sense,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who is not seeking reelection in November. “It’s undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) cut short his usual morning remarks to reporters to offer a vague assessment on what’s next for Clayton and overcoming the partisan stalemate to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“We’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on kind of what the White House position is on this,” he said.
The saga was but the latest in a string of what Republicans describe as unforced errors by the White House in recent weeks. Those include requesting security money for Trump’s yet-to-be-built ballroom that was later scrapped, a nixed Department of Justice anti-weaponization fund that could have paid Capitol rioters, and, most recently, appointing Bill Pulte, a top housing official viewed as too loyal to Trump, to take over as temporary head of the U.S. intelligence community.
“We are not the manufacturing department of the Article II branch. We are the board of directors for the Article II branch,” Tillis said. “You start treating us like that, coordinating with us like that, we won’t have these embarrassing setbacks and we can get back to the good work the president wants to accomplish.”
The episodes have damaged the relationship between Trump and Thune, despite the GOP-controlled Congress overcoming intraparty squabbles this month to pass a $70 billion package for the president’s immigration enforcement agenda. On the eve of halting Clayton’s confirmation process, Thune characterized his relationship with Trump as “fine” before elaborating on how he’s relayed to the president the complexities of a chamber with arcane rules and a 60-vote filibuster that forces bipartisanship.
“It isn’t every circumstance where the answer is ‘yes’ — sometimes you just have to understand, and I’ve expressed this a number of times, and usually it’s a function of the math. Either you have the votes, or you don’t,” Thune said Tuesday. “That’s the reality that I have to deal with, and I know it’s frustrating not only to him, but to many others who watch the Senate in action and wish that it could be faster and more efficient.”
The president’s gripe with Clayton, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was that he expected Democrats to oppose his replacement, Jamie McDonald, and wanted McDonald confirmed first.
Trump demanded in his Truth Social post, “canceling” Clayton’s confirmation hearing, that any FISA reauthorization bill include the SAVE America Act. The GOP election voting ID proposal has become a proxy fight over the filibuster, which the president also wants eliminated.
Frustration boiled over Wednesday from some Republicans toward Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a leading author and proponent of the SAVE Act, as others came to Thune’s defense. Lee’s colleagues accuse him of misleading Trump on the Senate’s ability to pass a measure that has repeatedly failed in floor votes.
“I don’t blame the president for trying. And I can assure you, if John Thune could deliver the SAVE Act, he would. He really would,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), before referencing an unsuccessful bid by Lee to bypass the 60-vote filibuster. “I mean, we tried it Mike’s way … I just don’t know what else — I’ve said enough.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost his primary runoff to Trump-backed Ken Paxton, also appeared to direct criticism at Lee but did not mention him by name. Last week, Cornyn openly sparred with Lee on social media over the proposal.
“I think part of the problem is not President Trump,” Cornyn said. “It’s us making unrealistic promises, and then when they’re not attained, then criticizing one another.”
Lee did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) praised Thune for “maintaining as much control as anyone could in these circumstances.”
“Of course, it complicates things,” Young told the Washington Examiner of Clayton. “But this is the president’s prerogative, to pull a nominee.”
SENATE PUNTS JAY CLAYTON HEARING AFTER TRUMP UPENDS FISA OFFRAMP
Republican senators and the White House insisted Clayton’s nomination was simply “postponed” and would proceed at a later, unspecified date. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR), a close Trump ally, called the delay “regrettable.”
Still, it remains to be seen how the GOP will break the latest logjam created by the president on his legislative agenda just months before the midterm elections. When it comes to FISA, Democrats are demanding that Pulte be removed from his interim DNI post, slated to begin on Friday, and Republicans saw the quick appointment of Clayton as a way to win their votes for a reauthorization deal.
Earlier on Wednesday, Democrats denounced the postponement of Clayton’s hearing as an “extraordinary display of dysfunction.”
David Sivak contributed to this report.