John Thune

Mr. President, Promise · 19 wordsthis afternoon, we are going to move on the nomination of Jay Clayton to be Director of National Intelligence.¹ Reasoning · 15 wordsAmid a heightened threat environment, having a proven leader in this role is especially important, Positioning · 6 wordsand Jay Clayton fits this mold.Positioning Claims · 83 wordsDuring the first Trump administration, Jay Clayton served as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for almost 4 years, ²and under his leadership, the SEC went after financial crimes and fraud and aimed to protect Main Street investors. He also worked with the intelligence community on national security issues that intersected with our financial system. That included efforts to address Chinese influence and exploitation of our markets. And, of course, he worked to maintain economic stability after the onset of the pandemic, Procedure · 2 wordsas well.Procedure Claims · 93 wordsSo, Mr. President, with that record, it is no wonder that President Trump wanted Jay Clayton to serve in his second administration, this time as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, an important law enforcement post.³ And for the past year and a half in that role, Mr. Clayton has been busy.⁴ He has supervised the prosecution of terrorists and the drafting of the indictment against Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.⁵ Now President Trump has nominated him for a Cabinet post to lead our Nation’s intelligence community.⁶ Positioning · 13 wordsJay Clayton’s record inspires confidence in the type of DNI he will be, PositioningClaims · 62 wordsand Democrats have previously recognized his abilities. He has earned bipartisan support in the past. The Democrat vice chair of the Intelligence Committee even said after Mr. Clayton was nominated for this position ``I have known and respected Jay Clayton for many years and believe he is a capable public servant’’--that, again, from the Democrat vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.⁷ Positioning · 38 wordsSo one might think that we would be seeing some bipartisanship from Democrats on this nominee, but Democrats are playing the same partisan games with this qualified nominee as they have with so many of President Trump’s picks.Positioning Claims · 55 wordsAnd it is a funny thing because Democrats have made no secret of their disdain for the current Acting Director of National Intelligence. In fact, Democrats were so worked up over the President’s temporary choice for this position that they allowed our Nation’s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever.⁸ Procedure · 3 wordsThat is right.Procedure Claims · 58 wordsNow Democrats have the opportunity to replace that acting official, but they are in no apparent rush to confirm a permanent Director of National Intelligence. They have opposed his nomination in committee.⁹ They have delayed things here on the floor, and I don’t expect we will see a lot of Democrat support for him in the final rollcall. Positioning · 34 wordsIt doesn’t matter how qualified the nominee or even that Democrats supposedly want to see the current Acting Director replaced. For our colleagues across the aisle, everything--everything--takes a back seat to the political games.Positioning Procedure · 7 wordsWell, I have run out of words.Procedure Positioning · 3 wordsIt is shameful.Positioning Promise · 24 wordsWe are going to move forward with the Clayton nomination this week.¹⁰ We will have a permanent Director of National Intelligence in place shortly, Vague promiseThe ask · 19 wordsand I hope this will encourage my colleagues to stop blocking the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Procedure · 11 wordsI yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.Procedure