Jay Clayton, DNI pick, won’t say if Biden beat Trump in 2020 election

Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump‘s pick for director of national intelligence, refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 election, claimed not to know his predecessor Tulsi Gabbard took part in a raid of a Georgia election office earlier this year and defended subpoenaing New York Times journalists in a contentious Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Clayton, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chair and current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence more than a month after Trump announced his nomination and weeks after the president then abruptly sabotaged a planned confirmation hearing in June.

While it appeared a month ago that Clayton would have a relatively smooth path to confirmation, Democrats challenged Clayton’s election comments and time as U.S. attorney. He is still likely to be confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who spoke with MS NOW on Tuesday ahead of a Thursday night speech Trump is scheduled to deliver on foreign attempts to subvert the 2020 election, grilled Clayton on whether he was aware of Gabbard’s presence earlier this year at a raid of a Fulton County, Georgia, election office.

Clayton said he only learned of Gabbard’s involvement, which was widely reported, from Ossoff during a private meeting earlier this week.

“Is it appropriate for the director of national intelligence to oversee the execution of domestic search warrants at sensitive election facilities? Yes or no?” Ossoff asked. Clayton did not answer.

“Your answers lack credibility. Your testimony lacks credibility,” Ossoff said.

On multiple occasions during the roughly two-hour hearing, Clayton declined to answer who won the 2020 election, instead saying: “I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified.”

Ossoff, at one point, called Clayton’s responses “disqualifying.”

The committee is expected to vote on Clayton’s nomination next week. If the nomination is advanced by the committee, the full Senate will weigh in.

The process of Clayton’s nomination as DNI, a role that would grant him access to the country’s most sensitive secrets and authority over 18 intelligence agencies, has been marred by controversy, thanks to Trump’s actions and the interim appointment of Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Bipartisan lawmakers have questioned whether Pulte — who from his perch atop the FHFA launched mortgage-related inquiries into Trump opponents — was fit for the job.

“I can’t think of any other instance in history of this committee where a president sends a nominee up, and then in a bipartisan way, we say we really want to move heaven and…