{"id":13280,"date":"2026-07-22T05:58:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13280"},"modified":"2026-07-22T05:58:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:58:43","slug":"senate-panel-advances-jay-claytons-nomination-to-lead-us-intelligence-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13280","title":{"rendered":"Senate panel advances Jay Clayton&#8217;s nomination to lead US intelligence agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">WASHINGTON &#8212; <\/span>The Senate Intelligence Committee has advanced the nomination of <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jay-clayton-pulte-trump-national-intelligence-director-b9a89bd3f1cb9c70fcca79de4c42cc99\">Jay Clayton<\/a>, President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to head the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies, along party lines. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The 9-8 vote came after some Democrats had praised Clayton and indicated that they might vote for him. But that shifted after a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/clayton-intelligence-director-trump-senate-1532baf2e182ede8d67e2d5561f296a8\">contentious hearing last week<\/a> in which Clayton repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, said during the hearing that he was \u201cbitterly disappointed\u201d in Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, even though he had worked with him in the past.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The committee\u2019s approval sets up a floor vote on Clayton\u2019s nomination, potentially early next week. The vote took place behind closed doors, as is customary for the panel, and all Democrats voted against Clayton, according to a person familiar with the vote who requested anonymity to disclose it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democrats are unlikely to allow Republicans to speed up a vote on the nomination after the hearing, at which Clayton said many times that the election was \u201ccertified\u201d for Biden, declining to say outright that the Democrat won. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said after the hearing that he thought Clayton\u2019s performance was \u201cabysmal,\u201d and that \u201cmakes it much less likely that he will get Democratic votes.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Democratic pushback on Clayton comes as Trump has made revisiting the 2020 election, which he <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-michael-pence-electoral-college-elections-health-2d9bd47a8bd3561682ac46c6b3873a10\">lost<\/a>, a primary focus. On Thursday evening, he <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-primetime-address-elections-5c84a59dffc20c12ed2fcb822fa950c9\">delivered a speech from the White House<\/a> in which he again tried to cast doubts on that election and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-voter-fraud-china-meddling-election-documents-46caa9f4ac6768f373d69c9a5e944570\">amplified debunked theories<\/a> about Biden\u2019s win. Clayton told senators that he had no involvement with that speech. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Senators in both parties <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-pulte-director-of-national-intelligence-5dc0e7f60641968692d2f7f05cbda005\">have expressed concerns<\/a> about the interim director, Bill Pulte, who took over when Tulsi Gabbard <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tulsi-gabbard-director-national-intelligence-iran-788f1f14259d72bd7936fa2e83149efa\">resigned last month<\/a>. Pulte has no known intelligence experience and investigated the president\u2019s perceived enemies in his previous post as a federal housing regulator. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Republicans were hoping to confirm Clayton in June so he could replace Gabbard without Pulte serving as interim. But Trump <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-jay-clayton-congress-voting-bill-bc75e8a07ea29788b602625cf1c54b47\">delayed Clayton\u2019s nomination<\/a> before the Senate left for a two-week recess, allowing Pulte to take the job temporarily. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Clayton did not mention Pulte in the hearing. But he emphasized his own government and national security experience, attempting to assuage senators in both parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI saw firsthand how a strong national security apparatus depends on decisive judgment, discipline, integrity, and effective communication and cooperation across different branches of the government,\u201d Clayton said in his opening statement. \u201cIf confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, I will commit to upholding these principles every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Cotton, who expressed frustration last month when the hearing was delayed, said that Clayton has a reputation for operating with \u201cmorality, decency and integrity\u201d in his previous positions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">\u201cJay Clayton is a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats. I\u2019m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance his nomination to be Director of National Intelligence,\u201d Cotton said in a statement on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; The Senate Intelligence Committee has advanced the nomination of Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to head the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies, along party lines. The 9-8 vote came after some Democrats had praised Clayton and indicated that they might vote for him. But that shifted after a contentious hearing last week in which&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/d879985f-f4bb-4aa7-9a95-a8e60b5f6e61\/wirestory_b98a7ab0283eb9a27f3ec21f6ca22a04_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}