The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 9-8 on Tuesday to advance Jay Clayton's nomination for director of national intelligence to the full Senate.
The vote split along party lines, committee Chairman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said, and he called Clayton "a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats."
Democratic opposition hardened after Clayton's confirmation hearing last week, when he repeatedly refused to admit that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election; Democratic Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) said, "I've known Jay for a long time. I like Jay. I worked well with him when he was at the SEC. But I was bitterly disappointed by his performance in front of my committee," and said he would vote against the nomination.
The vote puts Clayton, described in committee material as a top federal prosecutor and former SEC chair, on the cusp of joining President Donald Trump's Cabinet, and Senate Republicans have the votes to confirm him without any Democratic support, though it was not immediately clear when Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) plans to bring the nomination to the floor.
Bill Pulte is serving as the acting director of national intelligence and has no national security background; he came to prominence after accusing several of the president's political foes of mortgage fraud, and so far Pulte has not implemented the sweeping personnel cuts at ODNI that Democrats feared.
Senate Intelligence Chair Cotton and ranking Democrat Sen. Mark Warner last month agreed to fast-track Clayton's confirmation in exchange for Democratic support for a controversial spy law, but President Trump derailed the plan by directing Clayton not to attend his first scheduled confirmation hearing, which resulted in the partial expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; that authority expired on June 12.
The White House declassified intelligence documents last Thursday, but those materials fell well short of backing up the president's allegation about the extent of Chinese meddling in 2020 and did not support his longstanding claim that his 2020 loss was the result of a rigged election.
Democrats generally view Clayton as more competent and far less of a loose cannon than Pulte, and critics note Pulte encouraged mortgage fraud investigations of the president's enemies while head of the federal housing finance regulator.
Despite Democratic opposition, Clayton is expected to be confirmed given the Republican majority in the Senate; Warner said "we're a little rock-in-a-hard-place here," that Clayton "will probably get confirmed," and added, "I hope we see the Jay Clayton that I have known and have worked with."