See below for video and highlights of Sen. Mark Warner this morning questioning Jay Clayton, who has been nominated by President Trump to serve as the new Director of National Intelligence, following the disastrous tenure of Tulsi Gabbard, and the current reign of terror by acting DNI Bill Pulte.
- Sen. Mark Warner asks Jay Clayton: “As I’ve said repeatedly, if you’re confirmed, you’ve got to make sure that you speak truth to power, and that means even if the truth is not the preferred narrative that somebody wants to hear. So, let me just ask you what should be a simple question. Do you deny that Joe Biden won the election?”
- Clayton responds: “Senator, I’m not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States. Election denial is is something we cannot have.”
- Sen. Warner asks: “So I will take that as you do not deny that Joe Biden won the election.”
- Clayton responds: “Yeah…let me just be clear. We we have substantial work to do and I’ve made in improving our electoral processes. It’s part of national security. And I feel strongly about that.”
- Sen. Warner asks: “One of the things that again this will come around perhaps to what’s happening tomorrow night as well. Classified information is critical. If we violate classified information that loses us allies. It makes us less strong. I fear that certain countries already are not sharing as much information with us because of some of the things that have happened. So let me ask you some straightforward questions. If confirmed, you commit to protecting all classified information in accordance with established rules and procedures?”
- Clayton responds: “Yes.”
- Sen. Warner asks: “If confirmed, you commit to following established processes and procedures when it comes to declassifying information.”
- Clayton responds: “Yes.”
- Sen. Warner asks: “And that will then lead to the next, because if you’re going to follow official purposes, you cannot declassify information for political purposes. Will you promise that you will not do that?”
- Clayton responds: “Senator, I promise that my declassification exercises will be consistent with the role and I believe that there are a number of protections in place across the intelligence community to ensure that intelligence is not used for political purposes and I intend to adhere to those.”
- Sen. Warner: “Well, that is, you know, in many ways, at least for me, that is the nub of of this hearing.”
- Clayton: “In preparing for this hearing, I have analyzed the procedures that in play that are in place for declassification and other actions that you would take as the director of national intelligence and I look forward to consulting with the people inside the intelligence community and and at the ODNI to ensure that we adhere to those principles.”
- Sen. Warner: “It’s critically critically important, because again we may see some of this tomorrow night or not. But we go around those established procedures, we could burn sources and methods, we could lose allies. The ramifications are so grave and it has been treated in such a cavalier way that is really extraordinary and upsetting to me. Along with classified information comes the analytic tool. One of the things that I pointed out in the recent IC annual survey, the number of IC analysts that are concerned that their work may be threatened by politicization or if you don’t reach the right conclusion, that completely undermines the basis of what the intelligence community is set up with. So if confirmed, you commit that the ODNI’s decisions and analysis will remain free from political pressure and conspiracy theories?”
- Clayton: “Senator, the the role is to ensure that you, the president in particular, the members of the Cabinet receive the best possible intelligence product available and I do commit to do that.”
- Sen. Warner: “I can’t stress enough, you know, if the IC workforce feels they’re going to get political blowback or get fired, which we have seen because they reach a conclusion that may not be what certain folks in the administration want to hear, that undermines the whole work of the whole community.”
- Clayton: “If I could jump in on that and and I want to say that my experience at the SEC, my experience at the DOJ is that the people who have worked for me have great confidence that they can speak to me in a candid and free from any worry that what they say to me in their professional capacity is going to result in any kind…of friction beyond the normal to’ing and fro’ing that you have in any organization.”
- Sen. Warner: “I will say…in working with you at the SEC, I found that was how you operated and particularly in taking on certain issues that might not have been politically popular. This is such a different role and so I am so concerned that whoever ends up in this role is going to be under a set of pressures that may be unprecedented – and we’re going to need somebody extraordinarily strong. I come to my last set of questions and that is around election integrity. This job was set up to look at foreign interference in our elections. So, it was more than stunning to me when the former Director Gabbard showed up at a domestic, I believe, political interference activities in Fulton County. We’re coming into election season. I want to make sure you are on the record. If confirmed, you will commit you will not interfere with or comment inappropriately on US elections.”
- Clayton: “Senator, you outlined the role correctly. The role is to deal with foreign interference in US elections, which is something I’m gravely concerned about, but that’s the role.”
- Sen. Warner: “And finally, we cannot have the DNI trying to put it his or her hands on the scales in terms of tipping the outcome of any American election. Will you commit to not put those hands on the scales?”
- Clayton: “The the role of the intelligence community is to provide information, not to engage in policy or those things. So yes.”
