Senate confirms Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence

+ Politics Senate confirms Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence July 29, 20266:49 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Jenna McLaughlin Senate confirms Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence Listen &middot; 2:33 2:33 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5910749/nx-s1-9867169" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton to oversee the intelligence community, despite Democrats' concerns that he could politicize intelligence at President Trump's direction. Sponsor Message Transcript MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence has cleared the Senate. Jay Clayton was confirmed Tuesday in a 51-47 vote. Democrats fear he might cave in to pressure to politicize intelligence. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports.

+ JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: Jay Clayton, an attorney, will serve as President Trump's next director of national intelligence. Clayton faced initial pushback given his lack of intelligence experience. But proponents, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who's the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, cited Clayton's time as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York as evidence of his national security expertise ahead of his confirmation vote. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) TOM COTTON: Mr. Clayton went after some of the worst of the worst national security threats. He's overseen numerous high-profile cases, including the indictment of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. MCLAUGHLIN: Democrats say they're concerned about the pressure Clayton might face to do President Trump's political bidding. Trump has falsely claimed there's intelligence casting doubt on the result of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which he lost. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, is the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He asked during Clayton's confirmation hearing two weeks ago whether he had denied Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Here's how Clayton answered. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) JAY CLAYTON: Senator, I'm not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States. MCLAUGHLIN: However, when pressed to definitively say that Biden had won the election by Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, Clayton refused. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) JON OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election? CLAYTON: You know, I'm not going to do this with you. MCLAUGHLIN: On Tuesday evening on the Senate floor, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said Clayton had already made clear he would be susceptible to the White House's influence, given his office's recent role in issuing subpoenas for records of New York Times journalists and for refusing to say Biden won the 2020 election. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) RON WYDEN: He is never going to stand up to Donald Trump. MCLAUGHLIN: In addition to facing scrutiny on politics and intelligence analysis, Clayton will lead a workforce during a time when the White House has been pushing for job cuts in intelligence agencies. Even so, the intelligence community might welcome Clayton's confirmation if it means Congress can move to quickly reauthorize a powerful spy program created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Long criticized by privacy advocates as overly broad, the authority lapsed during debate over Clayton's nomination. Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF HUMAN BELL'S "HYMN AMERIKA") Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{310:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(80)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(769),o(155),o(176),o(93),o(447),o(254),o(128),o(130),o(754),o(175),o(755),o(255),o(78),o(773)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},782:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(310)}},[[782,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();