{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-on-jay-claytons-nomination/", "Thune on Jay Clayton\u2019s Nomination", "2026-07-27", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, this afternoon we\u2019re going to move on the nomination of Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence.\n\n\u201cAmid a heightened threat environment, having a proven leader in this role is especially important.\n\n\u201cAnd Jay Clayton fits the mold.\n\n\u201cMr. President, during the first Trump administration, Jay Clayton served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for almost four years.\n\n\u201cAnd under his leadership, the SEC went after financial crimes and fraud and aimed to protect Main Street investors.\n\n\u201cHe also worked with the intelligence community on national security issues that intersected with our financial system.\n\n\u201cThat included efforts to address Chinese influence and exploitation of our markets.\n\n\u201cAnd, of course, he worked to maintain economic stability after the onset of the pandemic as well.\n\n\u201cSo, Mr. President, with that record, it\u2019s 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.\n\n\u201cAnd for the past year and a half in that role, Mr. Clayton has been busy.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s supervised the prosecution of terrorists and the drafting of the indictment against Nicolas Maduro on drug-trafficking and terrorism charges.\n\n\u201cAnd now President Trump has nominated him for a Cabinet post leading our nation\u2019s intelligence community.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Jay Clayton\u2019s record inspires confidence in the type of DNI that he will be.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats have previously recognized his abilities.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s earned bipartisan support in the past.\n\n\u201cThe Democrat vice chair of the Intelligence Committee even said after Mr. Clayton was nominated for this position, and I quote, \u2018I have known and respected Jay Clayton for many years and believe he is a capable public servant.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat, again, Mr. President, from the Democrat vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.\n\n\u201cSo one might think that we\u2019d be seeing some bipartisanship from Democrats on this nominee.\n\n\u201cBut Democrats are playing the same partisan games with this qualified nominee as they have for so many of President Trump\u2019s picks.\n\n\u201cAnd, Mr. President, it\u2019s a funny thing, because Democrats have made no secret of their disdain for [the] current acting director of \u2026 national intelligence.\n\n\u201cIn fact, Democrats were so worked up over the president\u2019s temporary choice for this position, they allowed our nation\u2019s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cNow Democrats have the opportunity to replace that acting official.\n\n\u201cBut they\u2019re in no apparent rush to confirm a permanent director of national intelligence.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019ve opposed his nomination in committee.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019ve delayed things here on the floor.\n\n\u201cAnd I don\u2019t expect we\u2019ll see a lot of Democrat support for him in the final roll call.\n\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how qualified the nominee, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cOr even that Democrats supposedly want to see the current acting director replaced.\n\n\u201cFor our colleagues across the aisle, everything \u2013 everything \u2013 takes a back seat to their political games.\n\n\u201cWell, I\u2019ve run out of words, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s shameful.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we\u2019re going to move forward with the Clayton nomination this week.\n\n\u201cWe will have a permanent director of national intelligence in place shortly.\n\n\u201cAnd I hope this will encourage my colleagues to stop blocking reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-28T07:37:32Z", "2026-07-28T07:38:50Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-on-jay-claytons-nomination/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8221599273383617, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", 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