Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled deep uncertainty Thursday over the fate of Jay Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence.
Its future, he told reporters, is essentially up to President Donald Trump.
Asked whether Clayton’s nomination was being withdrawn, Thune pointed to the White House for answers.
“I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” he said.
Asked for a further explanation of why Trump effectively killed the Senate GOP’s hopes of quickly confirming Clayton and unlocking an extension of key surveillance law, Thune mentioned the acting director of national intelligence who is set to start Friday: “I think he’s very committed to Bill Pulte.”
“I don’t have good answers for these questions — those are probably better asked of the president and his team,” he added. “We are just executing or trying to execute on what they had asked us to.”
Trump’s early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday was only the latest instance where the president caught Republicans off-guard and frustrated GOP senators who worry that he is undercutting their efforts to pass a legislative agenda and help their party’s chances in the midterms.
Trump has fumed in particular over Senate Republicans’ inability to pass a GOP elections overhaul, the SAVE America Act, which doesn’t have 50 votes, much less the 60 needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster.
“We’re going to do everything we can to work — as I’ve said before — in a constructive way on an agenda, but it’s going to be an agenda that we can get the votes to pass,” he said.
Thune went on to comment on Trump’s peace agreement with Iran, which has sparked angst among Senate Republicans. He said that he expects senators to be briefed on the “memorandum of understanding” signed by Trump on Wednesday early next week.
“I think it’s good for Americans in the sense that opening up the [Strait of Hormuz] and getting the shipping lanes opened is going to make it easier to get things in and out,” Thune said, adding that he needs “to learn more about” a $300 billion reconstruction fund included in the agreement.
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