US intelligence director pick refuses to acknowledge Trump loss in 2020
Jay Clayton, often in circuitous fashion, avoided saying Joe Biden won 2020 race against Donald Trump during his US Senate confirmation hearing. President Donald Trump’s
Jay Clayton, often in circuitous fashion, avoided saying Joe Biden won 2020 race against Donald Trump during his US Senate confirmation hearing. President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the United States intelligence community has maintained he is not an “election denier”. But while appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, nominee Jay Clayton repeatedly refused to say former US President Joe Biden won the 2020 election over Trump. Clayton, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, faced the committee as part of confirmation proceedings to take over the role of director of national intelligence (DNI), a cabinet-level position. But the proceedings coincided with renewed scrutiny over Trump’s false claims about US election integrity. Trump has asserted, without evidence, that he won the 2020 race, and critics fear he may use the federal government to advance that narrative. Senators pressed Clayton about his views on the 2020 race between Biden and Trump, and he acknowledged that Biden had been “certified” as the victor. But he avoided directly saying Biden “won” the race. In one exchange, Democrat Jon Ossoff asked Clayton point-blank, “Who won the 2020 election?” “I’m not going to do this with you,” Clayton responded. “This is a job interview.
We’ve established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee,” Ossoff replied. He then repeated, “Who won the 2020 election?” Clayton maintained he had already “answered the question”. In another pointed exchange, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly dug into the issue. “Tell me why Joe Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 election,” Kelly said. “I’m going back to my constitutional law here. I don’t want to continue to have a debate about this, but I believe he had the most electoral votes,” Clayton responded, referring to the Electoral College system, which determines the outcome of presidential races. The vote tally in each US state generally decides how many Electoral College votes go to a given candidate. “So he won the election?” Kelly asked. “He followed our process, had the most electoral votes, was declared the winner,” Clayton responded. “And who has the most electoral votes? Is it the person who wins or the person who loses?” Kelly asked. “That’s your characterisation,” Clayton said. “I’m not going to continue to do this”. Refusal to contradict Though Clayton is seen as a more moderate alternative to the current acting Director of Intelligence Bill Pulte, his response on Wednesday represented a possible stumbling block in his confirmation proceedings.
The BriefWire