Democrats on Wednesday repeatedly questioned Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee to lead the nation’s intelligence community, about his refusal to answer the question of who won the 2020 election.
Mr. Clayton’s response — that Joseph R. Biden Jr. was “certified” as the winner — has become the standard answer for Trump administration nominees, who have refused to say flat out that Mr. Biden won.
But with Mr. Trump set to deliver a speech on election security this week, Democrats refused to accept the standard answer.
Senators Mark Warner of Virginia, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Angus King, a Maine independent, all grilled Mr. Clayton over his answer. Several of the senators said that the job of the director of national intelligence is to speak truth to power, and that Mr. Clayton was demonstrating an aversion to that very task.
“You’re going to be in a room with him many times, and at times you should have a difference of opinion,” Mr. Kelly said. “And if you can’t disagree with him when he’s not in the room, are you going to be able to disagree with him when you’re sitting across from him in the Oval Office or Situation Room?”
Multiple lawmakers mentioned that Mr. Trump was likely to revive his often-repeated — but false — claims of irregularities in the 2020 vote in a prime-time address on Thursday. In recent days, the acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, has been working on the declassification and potential release of documents related to election security or interference.
Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that the speech would be about election security and voting machines, among other topics, and that he would share “really, really big news.”
The president is expected to continue to raise the specter of voter fraud in his address, according to two people familiar with his plans. In recent months, he has ratcheted up unsubstantiated claims of widespread manipulation and rigging of elections in the United States. His address is expected to refer to sensitive documents that have recently been declassified by an administration task force.
After the hearing, Mr. Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Mr. Pulte’s declassification effort concerned him because it could expose sources or methods of collection and prompt allies to pull back from sharing their most sensitive secrets.
The Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on Mr. Clayton’s nomination early next week, according to Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and the panel’s chairman. To advance, Mr. Clayton will need unanimous support from the panel’s nine Republicans if all eight of the Democrats oppose his nomination, as appeared likely after the hearing.
If Mr. Clayton advances out of the committee, a vote by the full Senate would follow.
Mr. Clayton appeared frustrated that the Democrats would not drop the matter of the 2020 election.
Mr. Ossoff, the last questioner of the day, hammered at Mr. Clayton, briefly leaving him speechless, as he said the nominee’s answers were not honest.
The senator then asked Mr. Clayton if he was aware that Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down as director of national intelligence, had gone to Fulton County, Ga., this year to oversee an F.B.I. search of an election center. Mr. Clayton said he was made aware of it on Tuesday in a visit with Mr. Ossoff.
With a look of incredulity, Mr. Ossoff responded, “The first time you learned that Director Gabbard was present at that raid was in my office yesterday?”
Mr. Clayton backed down, but the senator said his point was made.
“Your answers lack credibility,” Mr. Ossoff said. “You’re being evasive and you’re not being candid or forthright.”
While Republicans tried to turn the hearing to other issues, like Mr. Clayton’s work on terrorism cases, Democrats came again and again to the issue of elections.
When Mr. King asked if there was a problem with voter fraud in the United States, Mr. Clayton replied, “I don’t think we can say definitively whether there is or is not until we have better processes.”
Ms. Gillibrand discussed Ms. Gabbard’s cuts to the foreign malign influence center, the group within the intelligence community that monitored and helped counter attempts by adversarial countries to interfere in U.S. elections.
Ms. Gillibrand noted that when Mr. Trump became president, “he eliminated every aspect of your office’s oversight of the election process from cyberthreats. You had personnel that were very knowledgeable, especially about foreign influence.”
She pointed out that Mr. Trump also fired employees at the F.B.I. and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who were working to protect elections from foreign threats.
“So you can understand why this committee is concerned that you won’t say Biden won the election because it just reeks of this insecurity by the Trump administration about election security,” Ms. Gillibrand said.
She continued to press Mr. Clayton that it was critical to understand that the director of national intelligence had no role in exposing voter fraud, and instead needed to be focused on foreign countries trying to influence the election.
Mr. Clayton said he understood and said foreign influence efforts were a “significant concern of mine.” But when Ms. Gillibrand pressed him to rebuild the office’s cybersecurity and foreign malign influence offices, he would commit only to “making an assessment.”
Mr. Clayton, who is currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was poised to have a relatively easy path to confirmation last month. Senate Democrats and Republicans were intent on preventing Mr. Pulte, a close ally of Mr. Trump with no national security experience, from becoming the acting director. They were preparing to quickly hold a hearing and secure a vote to confirm Mr. Clayton to the post.
But Mr. Trump abruptly delayed the confirmation proceedings, ordering Mr. Clayton not to appear at the initial hearing, a move that allowed Mr. Pulte to take over from Ms. Gabbard in the position of acting director.
Tyler Pager and Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
The post Clayton Dodges Question on 2020 Election, and Democrats Call Him on It appeared first on New York Times.
