Sen. Mark Warner said Sunday he will not vote to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, saying Clayton would not name the winner of the 2020 election at his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
Clayton is currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Warner said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "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," and added, "So I will be voting against Jay Clayton."
During the confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee repeatedly asked Clayton about the results of the 2020 election; Clayton acknowledged that former President Joe Biden was certified as president, said that he is "not an election denier," and evaded questions about who won the 2020 election.
Clayton was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and was described as the well-regarded leader of the U.S. attorney's office in one of the highest-profile jurisdictions in the country.
Warner pointed to Clayton's response when he was asked about Gabbard's presence at an FBI search of an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia earlier this year, saying Clayton was "acting like he didn't understand what Gabbard had done."
Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he expected Clayton to be confirmed, saying, "I think Jay Clayton will get confirmed," and noting Clayton "can be confirmed without the support of Democrats as Republicans control the Senate."
Warner said the Senate is "a little rock-in-a-hard-place here" with the controversial acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, currently in the role, and called Pulte an "absolute disaster," saying Pulte has "no intelligence experience, who has nothing but loyalty to Trump" and pointing to Pulte's issuance of several criminal referrals to the Justice Department alleging mortgage fraud by a number of Mr. Trump's political foes. Warner added, "that is not the kind of person we want in as DNI."
Warner's comments came after he had praised Mr. Trump's nomination of Clayton just weeks ago, saying on "Face the Nation" last month, "We will get Clayton, I hope, confirmed as quickly as possible."
President Donald Trump last week delivered a primetime address accusing some foreign countries, specifically China, of attempting to interfere in American elections starting in 2020, an accusation China denied, and announced the declassification of several documents he said showed China had pulled off "the largest compromise of election data in history" by acquiring information on American voters.
Senators on the Intelligence Committee from both parties, including Warner, said the newly released documents reflected mostly previously known information about attempts to interfere in the 2020 election and showed no proof that the election was stolen.
Warner said Russia and Iran were bigger threats, saying, "Russia was very good at influencing our elections. They have been far and away the most prominent player, usually on behalf of Trump. Iran has been very active as well, usually against Trump," and adding, "China's got the capabilities, but they've bee. ... less about which candidate and more like, can we just make Americans lose confidence?"
A Russian spokesman said Friday that it has never interfered in U.S. elections.
As Trump continued to claim the 2020 election was stolen and that U.S. elections are not secure, he again pushed for passage of the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate, to register to vote; Democrats are united against the bill, which does not currently have enough support in the Senate to become law.
Asked if he would support a narrower requirement for photo ID in U.S. elections, Warner said he would support a uniform ID requirement, saying, "If you're going to have a set of IDs, let's have it across the board as long as it comes from some official point," and adding, "But this is not about voter ID. The SAVE Act is about voter disenfranchisement."