The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Jay Clayton’s nomination on Tuesday to serve as the next Director of National Intelligence, as GOP leaders aim to confirm him to the role before the August congressional recess.
The 9-8 committee vote fell along party lines.
“Jay Clayton is a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combatting a wide range of national security threats,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said in a statement. “Once confirmed, I look forward to working with Mr. Clayton to keep Americans safe and continue reforming the Office of Director of National Intelligence.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said he will begin the floor process to confirm Mr. Clayton “as soon as possible.”
The DNI is a cabinet-level nominee, subject to up to 30 hours of debate time on the Senate floor after clearing a procedural vote. Democrats can drag out the process by declining to speed up that timeline.
Mr. Clayton currently serves as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Democrats who worked with him in the latter role had initially indicated openness to supporting his confirmation, but that changed after his confirmation hearing.
Under repeated Democratic questioning, Mr. Clayton refused to say that Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
“I’m not an election denier,” Mr. Clayton said. “Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States.”
However, when pressed to say who won the 2020 election, Mr. Clayton avoided a direct answer. The closest he got was saying Mr. Biden “followed our process, had the most electoral votes, was declared the winner.”
Democrats said the obfuscation demonstrated that Mr. Clayton is unwilling to stand up to President Trump, who has maintained the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“If you can’t disagree with him when he’s not in the room, are you going to be able to disagree with him when you’re sitting across from him in the Oval Office or the Situation Room?” Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, asked during the confirmation hearing. “This job, it’s not about softening the edges when the truth is unpleasant.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff, Georgia Democrat, called Mr. Clayton’s dodge “disqualifying.”
“Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?” he said. “We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question.”
Sen. Mark R. Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, had defended Mr. Clayton’s qualifications for the DNI role ahead of the hearing but decided afterward he could not vote to confirm him.
“I’ve known Jay for a long time. I like Jay. I worked well with him when he was at the SEC, but I was bitterly disappointed by his performance in front of my committee,” Mr. Warner said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
In addition to Mr. Clayton’s refusal to say Mr. Biden won the 2020 election, Mr. Warner, Virginia Democrat, cited the nominee’s response to questioning about former DNI Tulsi Gabbard overseeing an FBI raid of the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.
Mr. Clayton said he had not thought about Ms. Gabbard’s involvement in the Fulton County raid until Mr. Ossoff brought it up during the private meeting ahead of the hearing. He dismissed a question about whether he would ever oversee the execution of a domestic search warrant on a sensitive election facility as a “hypothetical.”
Mr. Warner said he took issue with Mr. Clayton “acting like he didn’t understand what Gabbard had done in Fulton County.”
The senator said he expects Mr. Clayton to be confirmed and hopes in the DNI role he returns to “the Jay Clayton that I know and have worked with.”
Mr. Clayton said during the hearing that he is not afraid to speak truth to power, as Democrats suggested.
He said he would approach the DNI role in the same way he did his previous leadership positions in the public and private sector: “mission-focused and team-oriented, taking on the challenges and seizing the opportunities.”
If confirmed, Mr. Clayton will oversee the government’s 18 disparate intelligence agencies.
He will replace acting DNI Bill Pulte, whom Democrats vehemently oppose.
Mr. Trump’s appointment of Mr. Pulte to temporarily serve as DNI led Democrats to block an extension of a foreign surveillance law, which has now been expired for over a month.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the government to spy on communications of foreign targets without a warrant and has been used to help thwart terrorist plots and stop drug trafficking.
Mr. Thune said he plans to hold another vote to extend FISA Section 702 soon after Mr. Clayton is confirmed.
“I’m hoping that there’ll be enough Democrats that will vote to advance FISA once Clayton’s installed,” he said.
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