Trump abruptly halts confirmation process for Jay Clayton as US intelligence chief

Donald Trump abruptly halted the confirmation process for Jay Clayton as the US’s top intelligence chief early Wednesday, in a move that will allow Trump’s controversial selection for acting director of national security, Bill Pulte, to assume the role and remain in place for at least several weeks until Clayton is confirmed. Trump pushed the Senate to confirm Clayton after his appointment of Pulte as acting director sparked bipartisan pushback and stalled his administration’s push for renewal of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa). Democrats and some Republicans have decried Pulte’s nomination, saying that his background as the chair of a federal mortgage regulation agency is insufficient to lead America’s intelligence community. In a surprising post on Truth Social in the early morning hours Wednesday, Trump declared “we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI Today”. The president does not technically have the power to cancel a Senate hearing, though it appears Clayton will not appear. Trump said that Republicans had rushed the Clayton nomination so quickly that “Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA”, using his common derogatory term for Democrats. …