Jay Clayton was confirmed as the Trump administration’s new Director of National Intelligence in a 51 to 47 vote along party lines in the Senate on Tuesday evening.
President Trump has transformed the role of DNI — under Tulsi Gabbard who resigned from the role in May of this year, and then under interim DNI Bill Pulte — away from foreign intelligence and into a position that he has used to investigate his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and election administration general. The concern now is that under Clayton, who refused during his confirmation hearing earlier this month to say that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, the role of DNI will continue to be used as a way to advance the administration’s election interference agenda.
It appears as though much of Gabbard’s and Pulte’s work so far has centered on helping the Justice Department magically materialize evidence to support Trump’s rampant voter fraud delusions.
During her tenure, Gabbard was heavily involved in the FBI’s raid of a Fulton County election hub in January. She was actually present on site at this raid reportedly at Trump’s direct request, as TPM has reported. Democrats in Congress have since questioned why the DNI was involved in a FBI raid related to a domestic issue — seemingly exceeding the scope of the role of an intelligence official.
During his Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing earlier this month, Clayton was asked explicitly about Gabbard’s role in the Fulton County investigation by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). Clayton only said he “had not thought about it until you brought it to my attention yesterday.”
During that same Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, Clayton also repeatedly dodged questions from Democrats about the 2020 election, refusing to say explicitly that Biden won the presidential election that year.
Intel Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) was the first to ask Clayton during his confirmation hearing if Biden won the 2020 election. Instead of providing a direct answer, Clayton simply said that he is “not an election denier” and that “Joe Biden was certified as the President of the United States.”
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) similarly asked Clayton who won the 2020 election, and Clayton, once again, refused to answer directly.
“The answer to the chairman was, he asked me if I was an election denier. I am not an election denier,” he said. “Joe Biden was certified as the president. He went through his process. We went through our electoral process.”
At another point, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) also pressed Clayton on why Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 election. Clayton, again, refused to say that Biden won the election.
“I’m going back to my constitutional law here, but I don’t want to continue to have a debate about this, but I believe he had the most electoral votes,” he said.
As Neil DeGrasse Tyson frequently said, you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. The refusal to acknowledge a clear fact should be disqualifying for any government official.
It’s a requirement in this one.