Trump's pick to head national intelligence, Jay Clayton, won't tell senators Biden won the 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 earth to get this nominee moving quickly because of the importance of the position, and then the president decided that the Senate was moving too fast on his own nominee, and holds that nominee," Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said Wednesday at Clayton's hearing.

The DNI job opened up in May when then-director Gabbard announced plans to step away. Pulte took the helm later that month and has carried out Trump's orders to fire dozens of high-ranking intelligence officials.

The morning of Clayton's original hearing, Trump took to TruthSocial and directed him not to appear, saying he was pausing the nomination. Trump said he balked in part because he wanted Congress to attach a controversial election bill — that would impose photo identification rules and proof of citizenship to register — to the renewal of an unrelated foreign surveillance law.

Subsequent to Trump's appointment of Pulte, negotiations over that foreign surveillance law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, fell apart. The program lapsed in June, as Democrats protested Pulte's appointment to the position.

In the wake of Pulte's interim appointment, support for Clayton seemed widespread. But he was grilled on Wednesday by Democrats on the Senate panel.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, questioned Clayton about a statement he made on CNBC about California elections, in which he seemed to entertain the possibility of voter fraud.

"We had a problem, a deep problem with voting in America," Clayton said during a June appearance on "Squawk Box." "On the integrity side, we're doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it."

King requested clarification.

"That meant that the audit trail we have available for our elections in a number of places is not the kind of audit trail that you would expect in something that is this important," Clayton said.

Asked by King whether voter fraud was a problem in American elections, Clayton said, "I don't think we can say definitively whether there is, or is not, until we have better processes."

Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., both pressed Clayton on subpoenas served to New York Times reporters last week after they reported on security concerns related to a new Air Force One that was gifted to Trump by Qatar.

Clayton issued the subpoenas, which The New York Times said were delivered Friday, in some cases to the homes of the reporters in question. Those reporters were ordered to appear before a grand jury on Wednesday to testify "in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law."

Clayton said he was not able to get into the specifics of the investigation.

"Let me say that I am confident that the procedures that we have in place to protect the First Amendment and protect the freedom of the press, and not result in intimidation of journalists," Clayton said.