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Trump's intelligence nominee refuses to say who won 2020 election · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Another Trump nominee for a top post faced senators today.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: US Attorney Jay Clayton appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for his confirmation hearing to become Director of National Intelligence.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The job is largely focused on foreign threats and national security,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: but as Nick Schiffrin reports, much of today's hearing focused
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: instead on the recent past.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Today on Capitol Hill, a hearing that was supposed to
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: be about the future of the intelligence community was instead
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: dominated by the history of the twenty twenty election.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Who won the twenty twenty election?
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  Speaker 4: You know I'm not going to do.
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  Speaker 5: This with you.
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  Speaker 2: Jay Clayton is the President's nominee for Director of National Intelligence.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: A lawyer with more than thirty years of experience, President
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Trump's first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: most recently US Attorney for the Southern District of New York,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: one of the Justice Department's most prestigious roles.
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: You deny that Joe Biden won the twenty twenty election, Senator,
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not an election, Tonayrojo.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden was certified as the President of the United States.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And yet repeatedly in response to Democratic senators, Clayton refused
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to use the word wan to describe Joe Biden and
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  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty election.
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  Speaker 3: Who won that twenty election? Answer it? What is your answer?
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: I've given you my answer.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: What is your answer? You refuse to answer a basic
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: question about who won a presidential election, but you asked
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to lead America's intelligence community. Isn't it humiliating to be
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: unable to answer this question? To have to indulge the
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: President's delusions?
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  Speaker 6: I say it was rigged, just like the election was
• 1:45
  Speaker 6: rigged in twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 2: But since twenty twenty, President Trump has claimed he won
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: that election, and PBS News Hour has learned that tomorrow
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: night he will unveil new purported details and what he
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: has long claimed without hard evidence, was fraud. Part of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the President's efforts to find fraud ensnared his last Director
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of National Intelligence, Tulci Gabbard. She says that President Trump
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: directed her to observe an FBI raid on an election
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  Speaker 2: office in Fulton County, Georgia. By statute, the Director of
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: National Intelligence is barred from participating in domestic law enforcement
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  Speaker 2: or intelligence collection.
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  Speaker 3: Are you aware that former Director Grabbert testified that her
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  Speaker 3: presence at the raid was quote requested by the President.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not aware of that until now.
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  Speaker 2: That did not sit well with Virginia Democrat and Committee
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Vice Chairman Mark Warner.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: And I trust you, I know you, but a strange
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: credibility to think that you were not aware of Director
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: Gabbard's intervention in a domestic election activities in Fulton County.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: To be clear, the odean I's role as principally outside
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: the United States.
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  Speaker 2: There are other vital issues concerning the Office of the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Director of National intelligen including its size and scope. Recently,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Acting Director Bill Pulty launched a wave of firings, a
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: downsizing driven by President Trump and supported by Intelligence Committee
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Chairman Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton.
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: Later, the ode and I has unfortunately become yet another
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: bloated agency that incentivizes bureaucratic make work as opposed to
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  Speaker 6: genuine intelligence work.
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  Speaker 4: There needs to be a place of oversight, a place
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  Speaker 4: to resolve conflict. I look at it as a board
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  Speaker 4: of director's roles, and to the extent that the od
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: and I has gotten into operations or started to play
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: the roles of some of those other agencies, it probably
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: should pull back.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: The Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on Clayton's nomination
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: early next week. He would need all nine Republican votes
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: if the committee's eight Democrats all oppose the nomination. From
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: perspective on today's hearing, we turned to Fred Flitz, who
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: had a twenty five year career in the intelligence community.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: During the first Trump administration, he was Deputy Assistant to
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the President and Chief of Staff to the National Security
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Council Staff. He is now Vice Chair of the American
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Security at the America First Policy Institute. Fred fights thanks
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: very much, welcome, good to these Here. Is Jay Clayton
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: the right person for the job?
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: I think so. I was very impressed with him today.
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: He came off as a distinguished leader, a distinguished manager,
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: someone has a very good report for Congress, who has
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: experience dealing with congressional oversight. He also talked about his
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: intelligence experience, his work as a judge dealing with counter
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: terrorism narco trafficking. I think this makes them a good
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: choice and someone who will help implement the President's desire
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: to reform and downsize the Officer Director of National Intelligence.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Let me ask about the number of times that Clayton
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: was asked by Democratic senators. Also, Angus King an independent
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: who caucusses with the Democrats about whether Biden quote won
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the election in twenty twenty. Clayton refused to use that word,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: instead saying Biden was quote certified. But what do you
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: make of that?
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  Speaker 6: Is that important? I think it's a shame the Democrats,
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: six years after the twenty twenty elections, still want to
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: make an issue out of that. The Democrats want to
• 5:05
  Speaker 6: make an issue over who won the election. Really, they
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: wasted a hearing which was an opportunity to discuss serious
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: national security issues. I just think they're trying to use
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: this hearing to create talking points and soundbites for the
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: next election in midterm.
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  Speaker 2: Does it concern you about the most recent Director of
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: National Intelligence, Telsea Gabbard, that she got involved in domestic politics.
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  Speaker 2: There is a lot of evidence that you and I
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: have talked about over the years that foreign adversaries have
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: tried to influence elections, but the Senate intelligence community, the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: intelligence community itself, has always said that there's no evidence
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: that any foreign actors manipulated any votes. Does it concern
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: you if the Director of National Intelligence is involved in
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: domestic politics, Well.
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  Speaker 6: There's pretty substantial intelligence that many nations China, Iran and
• 5:54
  Speaker 6: Russia have tried to influence the outcome of our elections.
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  Speaker 6: Did it make a difference in the outcome? Well, that's
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: something we can debate and look at the information. I
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: think that our intelligence community has a responsibility to make
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  Speaker 6: sure that if there are hostile powers trying to affect
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: the outcome of our elections, especially presidential elections, they need
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: to do that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: All right, this booms out, Listen them out. Clayton and
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Chairman Cotton of Arkansas. I talked about the need to
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: cut the size of the staff of the Director of
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: National Intelligence, as you mentioned before. Why do you think
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: that's important?
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  Speaker 6: I like the way Cotton began this debate. He said
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: that the OD and I the also Director of National Intelligence,
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: is a wasteful and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. He would
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: like to see it numbered in the teens, if not
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: the hundreds. Right now, there are thousands of bureaucrats work
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: in this bureaucracy. I was with the CIA for nineteen years.
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  Speaker 6: I really don't know what this bureaucracy does. When I
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: was on the House Intelligence Committee, I just noticed they
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: sent in tons of senior officials, so many of which
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: when we had a witness table. We couldn't fit all
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: the OD and I and other intelligence community officials. So
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: many officials, so many cooks stirring the soup, makes it
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: very difficult to get intelligence out quickly to the President
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  Speaker 6: when he needs it. We need to have a streamline
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  Speaker 6: and effective US intelligence community, the OD and I instead
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: of being a small coordinating office to make sure the
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: intelligence agencies share information. That's what the nine eleven Commission wanted.
• 7:18
  Speaker 6: It now produces intelligence. It has the National Intelligence Council,
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: It has issue managers who do the same thing on
• 7:24
  Speaker 6: regional issues and on functional issues. I think Center Cotton
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: is exactly right. He has a very good bill on
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: how to pare down the OD and I.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: And do you think the President will support Clayton being
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: a strong Director of National Intelligence even as the structures
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: will reduce in size at the very lea.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: I think Clayton will get similar directions from the President
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: that Poulte did to basically right size this organization. So
• 7:48
  Speaker 6: intelligence is lean and mean and gets the president what
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: he needs quickly and without political influence.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Fred Flitz, thank you very much.
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: Good to be here.
• 8:09
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• 8:15
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