Trump THREATENS to CANCEL DNI confirmation hearing set for today

[0:00] In theory, Jay Clayton, who's President Trump's pick for the next director of national intelligence, [0:05] was scheduled to testify before the Senate Intel Committee later today. [0:09] Maybe. Now we don't know. [0:11] Because what we're seeing from the president of the United States on Truth Social in just the last few minutes, [0:16] as we're coming on the air, is that he now doesn't want to do this hearing [0:20] because he wants to continue applying leverage and pressure to get the kinds of policies that he wants to put in [0:26] to a FISA deal while trying to confirm a new director of national intelligence [0:30] and also still trying to lean on Republican senators to pass the SAVE Act, [0:35] that controversial voter protection bill that he has talked about for a long time, [0:39] but that Republican senators don't see the same way and don't want to pass. [0:43] So what are we doing? This is all happening in real time. [0:46] Thankfully, I have Jonathan Lemire here, of course, of The Atlantic and, of course, of Morning Joe. [0:51] I feel like you don't do enough television. [0:52] Well, I'm happy to help out. [0:54] Yes. Talk to me about what's happening, [0:55] because you're the one who came to set and said, [0:57] I don't know that we're doing this today, [0:59] but I also don't think that the president can just say the Senate is no longer holding a hearing [1:03] unless he called Tom Cotton at, like, 4 o'clock this morning and said, pull it down. [1:07] Yeah, and the president, of course, is in France, so he's been up for a while. [1:10] It's possible he called Cotton. We don't know that. [1:12] It's also possible he has just told Jay Clayton, don't show up. [1:15] That could be. [1:15] But, yes, this just happened in the last few minutes as I was getting ready to come on set, [1:20] that the president is taking the Truth Social and saying that he does not want [1:23] the Jay Clayton hearings to be going forward today. [1:26] Clayton, of course, is picked for D&I. [1:27] He says for two reasons. [1:28] One, he wants to have Clayton's replacement for the U.S. Southern Attorney for the Sun District [1:34] of New York confirmed first. [1:36] That's somewhat reasonable, I suppose, a lawyer named Jamie McDonald. [1:40] But more than that, what this is really about is yet another last-ditch effort for the president [1:45] to try to get the SAVE Act passed, even though he has been told repeatedly, [1:48] as you well know, by Republicans, that this isn't going to happen. [1:52] And he is saying now that he would potentially even would not support an extension of FISA [1:57] unless Save America Act was attached. [1:59] He announced that a couple of days ago. [2:00] He's doubling down on that now, saying, well, wait a minute. [2:03] I'm not letting Clayton go. [2:04] If you don't give us the Save America Act, we're sticking you with Bill Pulte. [2:08] Because here are the dominoes that are falling, right? [2:10] He announces Bill Pulte. [2:12] Democrats who would typically vote to reauthorize FISA in tandem with Republicans say, [2:15] no, no, no, no, we're not going to reauthorize this if this is the guy you're putting in charge [2:19] as DNI. [2:21] They hold it up. [2:22] He says, OK, here's Jay Clayton. [2:23] In theory, when Clayton was confirmed, the next domino to fall would be reauthorizing FISA. [2:28] And now the president is complicating that process against the backdrop, we should add, [2:32] of an Iran deal where key advisors of his, Director Ratcliffe, Marco Rubio, [2:38] are reportedly concerned from their own intelligence readings [2:41] about the Iranians being truthful with their intentions throughout this deal. [2:45] So continued reliance on intelligence at a time when FISA itself is lapsed. [2:50] And there are all sorts of contingencies that say, [2:52] maybe there's not a huge threat to that yet, but it can't just continue to stay in this posture. [2:57] No, I mean, Clayton, first of all, was seen as a more palatable choice for Democrats. [3:00] I mean, he's embraced some election conspiracy theories as well, [3:03] but he is not the spear of the retribution campaign like Pulte has been. [3:07] So, I mean, there's a sense that Clayton would have gotten through. [3:10] That wouldn't have been much of an issue. [3:11] But Trump, who has convinced himself that the Save America Act is the Republicans' best chance [3:16] to win this November in the midterms, is still trying to force that forward. [3:21] Ali, as you well know, many of the geopolitics on the Hill are very unhappy with this prospect. [3:26] But you're also right to bring up the point of Iran. [3:28] It shows, though DNI as a position has, you know, [3:32] there are some on both sides of the aisle who frankly worry that, you know, [3:35] who think its power should be reduced. [3:36] Some of them suggested doing away with it altogether. [3:39] Tulsi Gabbard obviously didn't wield a lot of influence in that position, [3:42] in part because she opposed some Trump policies like the Iran war. [3:47] But still, at least as the intelligence community is currently instructed, that post matters. [3:52] You don't want it sitting empty. [3:53] You don't want Bill Pulte in charge, particularly at a time of war, [3:57] a war that did not go well for President Trump, obviously, as I wrote and we'll be talking more [4:01] about during Morning Joe, this was a defeat for President Trump, one that really hurts America's [4:07] stature and his personal stature at home and on the world stage. [4:10] You know, and when we talk about the Save Act, Republicans call it a voter protection bill, [4:15] but Democrats, of course, are right to point out that when you actually look at the way that [4:18] the law would be implemented, a lot of people would be disenfranchised. [4:22] It would add so many barriers to voting for folks. [4:24] And I think Republicans even privately know that. [4:26] When you start limiting mail-in voting, people vote for Republicans by mail, too. [4:30] The president himself exercises that power. [4:32] I wonder how you think that this is going to land on Capitol Hill, [4:35] because we just came off of a day yesterday where Republican senators, [4:39] especially those who are high-ranking, were saying, yeah, [4:41] we haven't exactly been told what's in the Iran deal. [4:44] I mean, communication breakdowns seem evident already. [4:47] This is Trump just throwing more confusion into the waters, [4:50] as I think Republicans broadly on the Hill are trying to say, [4:53] hey, can we just do a little bit less so that we can figure out how we're going to run [4:56] and try to win our re-election battles in an already choppy water season coming toward November? [5:02] This seemed like a pretty easy win for the president in getting Clayton approved. [5:06] To your point, so little has been drama-free of late. [5:10] This one would have been. [5:11] And now it's Trump again throwing an 11th-hour wrench in the gears [5:16] and again pushing for the Save America Act, which is not going to pass. [5:20] He's, of course, blow-trick suggested that the filibuster could be blown up [5:23] in order to get it through. [5:24] Leader Thune and other Republicans are saying that's simply not going to happen. [5:27] Yeah. [5:29] And to your point, we also have had a lot of frustration in the Senate throughout this Iran war. [5:33] And right now, there's this memorandum of understanding. [5:36] The deal that's allegedly going to be signed Friday in Geneva. [5:39] Ali, usually if you feel good about a deal, you let people read it. [5:42] Read it out. [5:43] And no one has. [5:44] It's been kept under wraps. [5:45] Bloomberg has done some reporting. [5:46] It looks like we're seeing drafts of it begin to circulate, but it has not been officially [5:50] released by the administration yet. [5:52] Just adding to the anger on Capitol Hill and Republicans are going to—waking up to [5:56] this news, not going to be thrilled. [5:58] Yeah, not going to be thrilled. [5:59] And at the same time, we're going to see they're demanding briefings on the Iran deal. [6:03] Already that was a concern. [6:04] Are they going to vote for it? [6:05] Do they want to vote for something that has so many shades of the Obama-era deal that Republicans [6:10] railed against for years leading up to Trump pulling out of it? [6:14] And, of course, after continuously pointing to Iran's power in their mind because of that [6:20] Obama-era deal. [6:21] I mean, the president on his Truth Social post said this is to add some intrigue. [6:24] I'm not sure that we were lacking in the intrigue department, but certainly we're going to [6:28] watch how this plays out now as the sun rises. [6:30] And it's always amusing when Trump acts as a commentator along his side, his own actions. [6:34] He's talking about what he just did. [6:36] Yeah, exactly. [6:37] Exactly. [6:38] Always interesting. [6:39] John Lemire, thrilled to have you always, but especially on this morning. [6:42] You come to the set, you bring the news. [6:44] It's why we love you, honestly. [6:45] It's what we do. [6:46] It's what we do.