Trump’s Nominee for American Spy Chief Suffers Rocky Confirmation Hearing, Repeatedly Declining To Say Who Won the 2020 Election

President Trump’s nominee to be the Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, suffered through a rocky confirmation hearing on Wednesday as he repeatedly declined to say who won the 2020 presidential election. Throughout hours of testimony, Mr. Clayton grew increasingly frustrated by Democrats questioning him about elections and Mr. Trump’s desire to have someone go looking for proof of fraud. Mr. Clayton currently serves as the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. Though he has never worked in the intelligence community, Republicans and Democrats welcomed his nomination last month, given he has overseen a number of high-profile national security-related prosecutions. The installation of Trump loyalist Bill Pulte as the acting DNI also lit a fire under Democrats to try to get Mr. Clayton confirmed as quickly as possible. That sense of urgency may no longer be there after Mr. Clayton’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday, however. “Who won the 2020 election?” Senator Jon Ossoff asked.“I’m not gonna do this with you,” Mr. Clayton shot back sternly, grimacing at the Georgia senator. Mr. Ossoff then asked three additional times who won the 2020 presidential race, leading Mr. Clayton to dismiss him out of hand. “We can keep doing this,” Mr. Clayton said, shrugging. “Well, we’re gonna keep doing it because you’re not being honest and forthright,” Mr. Ossoff responded. He then asked Mr. Clayton several more times about that election, with the nominee refusing to answer each time. Mr. Clayton accused the senator of engaging in “theater” for the cameras. Before Mr. Ossoff got to his questions, Senator Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat, also questioned Mr. Clayton about the election. Mr. Clayton said that President Biden was the person who got the most Electoral College votes, and was subsequently sworn into office as part of the constitutional “process.” When Mr. Kelly asked if that meant Mr. Biden actually won the election, Mr. Clayton said that that was the senator’s “characterization,” but he himself declined to comment. “It seems that folks who are nominated for these positions just, fundamentally, refuse to disagree with something the president says, and the problem I have with this is he isn’t in the room today. You’re gonna be in a room with him many times and at times, you should have a different of opinion,” “If you can’t disagree with him when he’s not in the room, are you gonna be able to disagree with him when you’re sitting across from him in the Oval Office or the Situation Room?”Mr. Clayton responded just to say that he would do his job “candidly” and independently.”“But just not in this room,” Mr. Kelly responded, leading Mr. Clayton to shrug and roll his eyes.Senator Angus King, a senior member of the committee who is a registered independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, questioned Mr. Clayton about the election, as well, saying that it was an important test for his independence. “I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president,” Mr. Clayton said, clearly frustrated. “As I said to you, we went through our processes.”Senate Republicans are hoping to have Mr. Clayton confirmed by the end of next week or, at the very least, before they go on their six-week summer recess. Mr. Pulte has few fans on Capitol Hill, even among those hardline conservative lawmakers like the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Tom Cotton. Mr. Pulte was the driving force behind the investigations into and prosecutions of Mr. Trump’s personal enemies, including Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, New York attorney general Letitia James, and Senator Adam Schiff. Mr. Pulte used nonpublic mortgage documents to issue criminal referrals for those individuals. Mr. Clayton was scheduled to be confirmed last month in an effort to stop Mr. Pulte from being installed as DNI. When he saw how quickly the process was moving and realizing that this could be a real point of leverage for himself, Mr. Trump directed Mr. Clayton to not show up for his confirmation hearing. He said Mr. Clayton would not appear before the Intelligence Committee until the Senate confirmed Mr. Clayton’s successor as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In the meantime, Mr. Trump said, Mr. Pulte would begin looking for evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. On Thursday, Mr. Trump plans to address the nation in a primetime speech from the White House. He has said that it will focus on election issues. “It doesn’t get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Trump’s Nominee for American Spy Chief Suffers Rocky Confirmation Hearing, Repeatedly Declining To Say Who Won the 2020 Election

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