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President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence has cleared the Senate. Jay Clayton was confirmed Tuesday in a 51-47 vote. Democrats fear he might cave in to pressure to politicize intelligence. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports.
JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: Jay Clayton, an attorney, will serve as President Trump's next director of national intelligence. Clayton faced initial pushback given his lack of intelligence experience. But proponents, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who's the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, cited Clayton's time as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York as evidence of his national security expertise ahead of his confirmation vote.
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TOM COTTON: Mr. Clayton went after some of the worst of the worst national security threats. He's overseen numerous high-profile cases, including the indictment of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
MCLAUGHLIN: Democrats say they're concerned about the pressure Clayton might face to do President Trump's political bidding. Trump has falsely claimed there's intelligence casting doubt on the result of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which he lost. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, is the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He asked during Clayton's confirmation hearing two weeks ago whether he had denied Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Here's how Clayton answered.
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JAY CLAYTON: Senator, I'm not an election denier. Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States.
MCLAUGHLIN: However, when pressed to definitively say that Biden had won the election by Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, Clayton refused.
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JON OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election?
CLAYTON: You know, I'm not going to do this with you.
MCLAUGHLIN: On Tuesday evening on the Senate floor, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said Clayton had already made clear he would be susceptible to the White House's influence, given his office's recent role in issuing subpoenas for records of New York Times journalists and for refusing to say Biden won the 2020 election.
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RON WYDEN: He is never going to stand up to Donald Trump.
MCLAUGHLIN: In addition to facing scrutiny on politics and intelligence analysis, Clayton will lead a workforce during a time when the White House has been pushing for job cuts in intelligence agencies. Even so, the intelligence community might welcome Clayton's confirmation if it means Congress can move to quickly reauthorize a powerful spy program created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Long criticized by privacy advocates as overly broad, the authority lapsed during debate over Clayton's nomination.
Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News.
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