Sen. Mark Warner says he hopes Senate can confirm Trump's DNI pick "this week"
Washington — Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that he's hopeful the Senate can confirm President Trump's new nominee for director of national intelligence this week, amid an impasse over the president's controversial pick to serve as acting intelligence chief that resulted in the expiration of a key spy authority late last week.
TL;DR
- Sen. Mark Warner hopes the Senate will confirm Jay Clayton as the next Director of National Intelligence this week.
- Democrats opposed Bill Pulte's nomination as acting intelligence chief, citing his lack of national security experience and potential to compromise classified information.
- The impasse over Pulte resulted in the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spy authority.
- President Trump expressed frustration with Democrats' stance and linked reauthorization of the spy authority to an unrelated elections bill.
- Warner believes the expiration of the FISA authority is a national security risk and blames President Trump for the situation.