Trump’s Pick For Spy Chief: ‘i’m Not An Election Denier’

Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, acknowledged at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that Joe Biden prevailed in the 2020 election, but declined to clearly affirm his win was legitimate.

“I'm not an election denier,” Clayton said in response to a question from Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, when asked whether he “denied” Biden won that year’s vote. “Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States,” Clayton continued.

Clayton, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chair, did not directly address Trump’s false claims that Biden did not actually have the votes to win and that his certification as president was therefore illegitimate.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) later panned Clayton for refusing to answer explicitly whether Biden was the 2020 election winner.

"We went through our processes, and Joe Biden became the president of the United States,” Clayton said as he was pressed repeatedly by King for an answer. “I’m here to talk about my qualifications.”

“One of your qualifications is you told us you're going to tell the truth to power, and you won't answer a very simple question,” King shot back.

Clayton’s hearing comes one day before Trump delivers a primetime address in which he is reportedly expected to declassify intelligence that appears to buttress his longstanding claims that the 2020 election was rigged in Biden’s favor. Prior reviews by the intelligence community and state and federal courts have not backed up those claims.

News of the speech has alarmed Democrats, including Warner, amid a push by Trump to assert more control over elections.

Clayton said he has had no role in the speech.

“I'm not involved in that,” he told Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chair of the committee.

Last week, Trump fired two Democratic commissioners from the Election Assistance Commission, which helps state and local governments prepare to administer elections and oversees the national mail voter registration form.

Trump is also leaning on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would clamp down on mail-in voting and require voters to bring a photo ID and proof of citizenship with them to the polls. The bill has become arguably his top legislative priority ahead of the November midterm elections.

Clayton said he did have concerns about how robust U.S. election administration is.

“Let me just be clear: We have substantial work to do in improving our electoral processes,” Clayton said. “It's part of national security, and I feel strongly about that.”

Democrats have warned the Trump administration could abuse the powers of the U.S. spy community to falsely sow doubt about U.S elections. They were particularly incensed when Clayton’s predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard, showed up at an FBI raid on an Atlanta-area elections facility, and when her office seized voting machines in Puerto Rico.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has generally focused on foreign threats to U.S. elections and does not have a role in domestic law enforcement matters.

Warner asked Clayton if he would commit to not tipping the scales for any outcome of a U.S. election.

“The role of the intelligence community is to provide information, not to engage in a policy or those things, so yes,” he said.