{"id":7024,"date":"2026-07-15T22:24:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7024"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:24:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:24:56","slug":"dni-nominee-claytons-answers-on-election-integrity-are-too-cute-by-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7024","title":{"rendered":"DNI Nominee Clayton\u2019s Answers on Election Integrity Are Too Cute by Half"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n<p>In exchanges with multiple Democratic senators during a Wednesday Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton repeatedly refused to state aloud that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The line of questioning began when Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA), asked Clayton if Biden won in\u00a0 2020. Instead of answering directly, Clayton dodged the question and said he is \u201cnot an election denier\u201d and that \u201cJoe Biden was certified as the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Warner, who seemed satisfied with Clayton\u2019s non-answer, did not press him further.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When Warner asked if he would commit to not interfering in U.S. elections, Clayton responded\u00a0 that \u201cthe role is to deal with foreign interference in U.S. elections, which is something I\u2019m gravely concerned about, but that\u2019s the role.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. Angus King (I-ME) then grilled Clayton about the 2020 election, asking him again who won the presidency that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to give you the same answer,\u201d Clayton responded. \u201cThe answer to the chairman was, he asked me if I was an election denier. I am not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president. He went through his process. We went through our electoral process.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not an answer to the question,\u201d King responded, to which Clayton said that he is here \u201cto talk about my qualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The exchanges got increasingly absurd, as senators pushed for a straight answer and Clayton continued to act as if he\u2019d already provided one.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) asked Clayton to say why Biden was <em>certified<\/em> as the winner of the 2020 election, and again Clayton refused to say explicitly that Biden won the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going back to my constitutional law here, but I don\u2019t want to continue to have a debate about this, but I believe he had the most electoral votes,\u201d Clayton responded.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Kelly then explained that his concern lies with Clayton\u2019s inability to disagree with Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to be in a room with him many times, and at times you should have a difference of opinion, and if you can\u2019t disagree with him when he\u2019s not in the room, are you going to be able to disagree with him when you\u2019re sitting across from him in the Oval Office or the Situation Room?\u201d Kelly added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) then took up the same line of questions. Again, Clayton dodged on who won in 2020, saying that he was \u201cnot going to do this with you\u201d and that he would not \u201cengage in political theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Clayton was repeatedly grilled with questions about election integrity \u2014 and about the 2020 election specifically \u2014 because the role of DNI under Tulsi Gabbard, and more recently, under her successor, interim DNI Bill Pulte, has been used as a way to carry out President Trump\u2019s call to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/trump-pushes-rigged-conspiracy-theories-about-minnesota-threatens-to-nationalize-elections\" target=\"_blank\">nationalize elections<\/a>\u201d and resurface 2020 election fraud claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The concern for Democrats around elections is that, if confirmed, Clayton will continue to use the position to advance the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing campaign to interfere in election administration and sow seeds of doubt about the integrity of the country\u2019s election system.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>During her tenure, Gabbard investigated and resurfaced baseless claims regarding the 2020 results. She was involved in and <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/where-things-stand\/the-feverish-view-from-stephen-millers-office\" target=\"_blank\">present on site<\/a> during the FBI\u2019s raid of a Fulton County election hub in January of this year, reportedly at the explicit direction of Trump. She was also involved in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/02\/04\/politics\/gabbard-office-obtained-voting-machines-puerto-rico\" target=\"_blank\">seizure of voting machines<\/a> in Puerto Rico, again, as a way to materialize evidence of voter fraud.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Pressed by Ossoff about Gabbard\u2019s actions, Clayton said he became aware of her presence at the Fulton County raid when he met with the senator on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cI had not thought about it until you brought it to my attention yesterday,\u201d Clayton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cYour answers lack credibility,\u201d Ossoff replied. \u201cYour testimony lacks credibility. You\u2019re being evasive and you\u2019re not being candid or forthright. And everybody across the country is going to watch this and know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After the senator\u2019s time expired, Warner followed up, saying Clayton surely knew about the Gabbard incident and seemed oddly unprepared for questions about her tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cIt strains credibility \u2014 and I trust you, I know you \u2014 but it strains credibility to think that you were not aware of Director Gabbard\u2019s intervention in the domestic election activities in Fulton County, and that that was subject of a great deal of consternation and review,\u201d Warner said.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Despite the pushback on election integrity matters, the hearing mostly proceeded smoothly, with Warner and other Democrats going out of their way to praise Clayton for his tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In exchanges with multiple Democratic senators during a Wednesday Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton repeatedly refused to state aloud that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The line of questioning began when Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA), asked Clayton if Biden won in\u00a0 2020. Instead of answering directly,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285586394.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}