Jay Clayton DNI Confirmation the man about to be handed control of 18 american intelligence agencies the CIA, the NSA, and every other body responsible for telling the president what’s actually true could not bring himself to say four words in a senate hearing room.
“joe biden won 2020.”
What Actually Happened at the Hearing
jay clayton, currently the US attorney for the southern district of new york and formerly the chair of the securities and exchange commission, appeared before the senate intelligence committee for his confirmation hearing to become director of national intelligence.
democratic senator jon ossoff asked him a direct yes or no question about the scope of DNI authority over election facilities. clayton did not answer.
ossoff then pressed him on 2020. clayton’s answer, repeated on multiple occasions throughout the roughly two-hour hearing, was the same carefully constructed phrase: “I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified.”
not “biden won.” certified.
ossoff did not let it go. “your answers lack credibility. your testimony lacks credibility,” he told clayton directly, at one point calling the responses “disqualifying.”
Why the Word Choice Matters
the jay clayton dni confirmation controversy centers on something that sounds almost technical but isn’t.
there is a legal and factual difference between saying an election outcome was “certified” a bureaucratic, procedural fact nobody disputes and saying who actually won. every election in american history has been “certified.” the certification process is not in question. what clayton was asked, repeatedly, was a much simpler thing: who got more votes.
he would not say it.
this matters specifically because of the job he’s being confirmed for. the director of national intelligence oversees the office that produces the official US government assessment on foreign election interference including a 2021 report from that very office finding no evidence of serious irregularities in the casting or counting of 2020 votes, while noting that russia and iran attempted influence operations that did not penetrate the actual voting process.
if confirmed, clayton would have direct authority over that report and everything connected to it.
The Senator Who Likes Him Personally
the most striking reaction to clayton’s testimony didn’t come from an opponent it came from someone who wanted to support him.
senator mark warner, the committee’s democratic vice chair, had initially praised clayton’s nomination and said he hoped to see him confirmed “as quickly as possible.” warner told CBS’s face the nation directly: “I’ve known Jay for a long time. I like Jay. I worked well with him when he was at the SEC.”
then he announced he was voting no. “but I was bitterly disappointed by his performance in front of my committee,” warner said, adding that his colleagues shared the disappointment. “I am not going to vote for him.”
warner still predicted clayton would be confirmed regardless “with Republicans controlling the Senate, he expects Clayton to be confirmed.”
How the Committee Voted
the senate intelligence committee advanced clayton’s nomination on tuesday in a 9 to 8 vote, split entirely along party lines. committee chairman tom cotton called clayton “a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats.”
the vote now sends clayton’s nomination to the full senate floor, where republicans hold enough votes to confirm him without a single democratic vote.
The Context Nobody’s Talking About
clayton’s nomination didn’t happen in a vacuum. he was nominated to replace tulsi gabbard, who resigned last month. since her departure, bill pulte director of the federal housing finance agency, a trump ally with no national security background who became known for accusing political opponents of mortgage fraud has served as acting director of national intelligence.
trump’s selection of pulte as acting director was contentious enough that democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to reauthorize section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act, a major warrantless surveillance authority.
clayton’s confirmation, if it goes through, would restart momentum on reauthorizing that surveillance program one of the most consequential and controversial national security tools the US government has.
Jay Clayton DNI Confirmation The Bottom Line
a man is about to be confirmed to run every US intelligence agency after refusing, in a public hearing, to answer a basic factual question about who won an election five years ago.
a senator who genuinely likes him, who worked with him for years, who wanted to vote yes watched that same testimony and changed his mind on the spot.
the vote was 9 to 8. the full senate vote is coming. republicans have the numbers regardless of what any of this means.
clayton will very likely become director of national intelligence. whether he ever answers the question he was asked twice remains to be seen.
follow this blog for updates as the full senate confirmation vote approaches.
