Top GOP Senator Tom Cotton Defies Trump in Heated Battle Over DNI Nominee

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Cliff Owen/AP photo)

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) stood firm against President Donald Trump on Wednesday after the commander-in-chief announced he was canceling a planned Senate confirmation hearing for his pick for Director of National Intelligence.

In a statement posted to X, Cotton voiced opposition to Trump’s earlier statement that the White House was canceling Jay Clayton’s confirmation hearing, which is scheduled for later Wednesday.

“Jay Clayton is a pending nominee before the Intelligence Committee,” Cotton posted to X. “We will proceed with his hearing as scheduled unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination.”

Cotton later confirmed that the hearing was off, because Clayton was told not to appear.

“It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today,” Cotton said in an X post at about noon, two hours before it was scheduled to begin. “Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”

And Cotton wasn’t alone, as Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) told NOTUS’s Igor Bobic that Trump pulling Clayton from the hearing was a “bad move” and “mistake.”

“I think it’s undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants,” Tillis added.

Also on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Punchbowl News’s Andrew Desiderio, “We’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this.”

When Desiderio asked Thune why he thinks Trump is doing this, he replied, “Good question.”

Cotton’s defiant statement came hours after a dead-of-night Truth Social post in which Trump announced the hearing won’t take place until Clayton’s replacement as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, is confirmed.

“Regarding the approval of our Great Patriot, Jay Clayton, we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,” Trump said.

Bill Pulte, whose nomination was met with uproar given his lack of military and intelligence experience, will now remain on as acting Director of National Intelligence.

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