The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as President Donald Trump’s new Director of National Intelligence, in a 51-47 vote following party lines, reported CBS News.
The vote gives Trump his pick in an office responsible for coordinating all of America’s intelligence agencies.
Previously, the DNI role was held by former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, but she exited office after a number of reported ideological differences over the Iran war. Gabbard denied this was the reason for her exit, citing personal reasons instead.
Trump initially wanted to replace Gabbard with loyalist Bill Pulte, his head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and installed Pulte in the agency on an acting basis. However, after bipartisan pushback, he instead selected Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Democrats initially considered this an improvement, but remained opposed to Clayton’s nomination after his hearing, due in part to his refusal to acknowledge the result of the 2020 presidential election, and his involvement signing off on a controversial set of subpoenas against New York Times reporters.
Clayton enters an Office of DNI that is already in turmoil, thanks to Pulte making a series of ideological purges of intelligence officers.
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