President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to lead the U.S.intelligence community in a bid to force Congress to act on a voter ID bill that currently lacks enough support for passage.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In a lengthy overnight post to Truth Social, Trump said that he was canceling a confirmation hearing for Clayton to be his director of national intelligence, which was planned for Wednesday.
He issued the post while keeping world leaders waiting for nearly an hour on the final day of the Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.Trump accused Democrats of reneging on a deal to renew a powerful surveillance tool backed by national security hawks, which had lapsed due to bipartisan anger over Trump’s initial pick for the role, Bill Pulte, who has no national security background.Add NBC News to GoogleTrump under pressure to reveal text of Iran deal00:53The president added another condition: linking his approval of the surveillance program to the passage of a bill requiring people to show ID in order to vote.Trump also said he does not want to take Clayton out of his current role as U.S.attorney for the Southern District of New York before his replacement, Trump lawyer Jamie McDonald, is approved.
The nomination of Clayton had been fast-tracked because of the lapse of the key spying program — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.“The Republicans agreed with Dumocrats to remove very fair, and talented, William Pulte, from serving as Acting DNI in return for getting FISA approved by the Dumocrats.However, the Republicans moved so fast with the hearings of the Great Jay Clayton, current U.S.
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA.Now, the Dumocrats are saying they will vote against FISA — So, the Republicans wound up having fulfil...