President Donald Trump’s last-minute decision to yank his own intelligence nominee from a Senate hearing sent Republicans scrambling and triggered warnings that the standoff could put American lives at risk.
Sen. Bill Cassidy publicly pressed Trump to reverse course and send Jay Clayton back into the Senate confirmation process.
“Democrats have been blocking FISA in bad faith, but confirming Jay Clayton would allow for a quicker resolution,” Cassidy wrote on X.
“Mr. President, by preventing Jay Clayton from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it puts American lives at risk. Put America first. Don’t stop Jay Clayton from coming before the Intel Committee.”
The disruption began Wednesday morning, when Trump used Truth Social to shut down Clayton’s scheduled testimony only hours before senators expected him in the room.
Democrats have been blocking FISA in bad faith, but confirming Jay Clayton would allow for a quicker resolution. Mr. President, by preventing Jay Clayton from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it puts American lives at risk. Put America first. Don’t stop Jay…
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) June 18, 2026
Clayton, currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had been expected to move quickly through the chamber.
Thune had been trying to use Clayton’s confirmation as the key to unlocking a stalled Section 702 renewal.
Democrats had signaled that their resistance could soften once Clayton replaced Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director Trump tapped to serve as acting intelligence chief.
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Instead, Trump accused Republicans of moving too quickly and falling into a Democratic trap.
Trump’s complaint was that Republicans were about to give Democrats what they wanted before forcing a FISA vote.
Trump claimed “the Republicans fell into a trap,” while also pushing Congress to combine FISA renewal with voter ID legislation.
Trump also used the post to press senators on James McDonald, the nominee lined up to take Clayton’s current prosecutor job in Manhattan.
The president’s maneuver stunned Senate Republicans, who had been trying to assemble a path to renew the surveillance powers.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton first tried to keep the hearing alive, saying the panel would move ahead unless Trump made the cancellation official.
Thune offered a similar read to reporters, saying Cotton was prepared to go forward while senators waited for the White House to explain itself.
“From there on, we’ll just have to take it a day at a time,” Thune said.
That plan collapsed and hours later, Cotton acknowledged the reversal and described the postponement as “regrettable.”
“Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly,” Cotton wrote on X.
“While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”
Sen. Susan Collins, a senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said the cancellation caught her off guard.
“I was surprised. I was looking forward to the hearing and the opportunity to ask some questions of Mr. Clayton. He has been praised by members of both sides of the aisle,” Collins stated.
“I’m concerned that this slows down the renewal of FISA, which is vital for our national security,” she added.
Clayton’s hearing was only the first problem. Pulte had become the bigger obstacle.
Sen. Thom Tillis was blunter, warning that Pulte’s presence would make the votes impossible.
“We’ll never get Section 702 confirmed while people think [Pulte] is at the helm,” Tillis said. “This is not hard.”
Tillis pointed to Pulte’s lack of a security clearance and dismissed him as “the wrong person for the job.”
Pulte’s FHFA tenure has already inflamed Democrats because of mortgage-fraud referrals involving Trump adversaries such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff.
Democrats seized on Pulte’s temporary appointment and Trump’s handling of the intelligence post.
Sen. Jon Ossoff used a MS NOW interview with Jen Psaki to turn Pulte into Exhibit A against Trump’s intelligence shakeup.
“The installation of a thug and a hack like Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence is maybe the most chilling and the most dangerous nomination or appointment that this president has made,” Ossoff said.
Ossoff argued that Trump had handed a sensitive intelligence role to a loyalist with no national-security résumé.
“He is putting the national security of the country at risk,” Ossoff said of Trump.
“His handling of this is putting the United States at risk, and making a terrorist attack more likely because he is destabilizing America’s intelligence capabilities.”
“But he’s also putting someone in who is a political hack, who will abuse his authorities in the intelligence community,” Ossoff continued, aiming the warning at Pulte.
Before Trump’s post, Thune’s plan was a clean Section 702 vote. On Monday, Thune said timing depended on whether the votes were there.
“We will try and move 702 as soon as we feel like we have the votes to do it,” Thune said.
Thune defended Section 702 as a core national-security tool, pointing to its use against terrorism, cyberattacks, drug trafficking and threats to U.S. troops.
Thune also signaled that Trump’s voter-ID demand did not have the math to survive inside the surveillance bill.
While we can’t know the consequences of Democrats’ decision to allow FISA to go dark, we do know it is almost certainly putting our nation at greater risk.
I hope that in the coming days, my Democrat colleagues will rethink their decision to take this program hostage and will… pic.twitter.com/7xhbpjzpwn
— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) June 15, 2026
“I certainly would hope if we can get FISA off the floor, he would sign it,” Thune said.
Once Clayton was pulled, Thune said the White House still had not given senators a clear path.
“I assume we’ll have some conversations soon,” he told CBS News.
Later, Thune sounded no closer to a solution. “I can only do what I can do here,” the majority leader said.
“We’re the Article I branch. The president, this is his nominee, and so obviously he made a decision not to move forward at the moment, and we’ll see what comes next.”
Democrats framed the collapse as more than routine partisan warfare.
Sen. Mark Warner, the panel’s top Democrat, argued the fight was no ordinary partisan standoff.
“This is a careless White House, a president that is treating our national security with complete disdain, acting at a level of recklessness that puts Americans at risk,” Warner said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of blowing up his own party’s effort to find a way forward.
“He pulled the rug out from under his Republicans, who were trying to find that path forward,” Schumer said. “What shambles. What an embarrassment.”
