Just days earlier than he was introduced as President Donald Trump’s new pick for Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton was pushing rigged election claims on CNBC.
Trump introduced Thursday that he was nominating Clayton, who presently serves as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York for the Cabinet submit. Clayton appeared on CNBC earlier this week, the place hosts Joe Kernen and Becky Quick requested him about California’s gradual poll counting course of, which Trump has called “rigged.”
“Give me an idea of what’s happening in California right now,” Kernen stated, to which Clayton answered, “No, I actually can’t, which I think is the problem.”
Kernen dug deeper, asking, “Are any of the things we’re hearing about, like, thousands of votes all for the same person — Is any of that true or is that just this sort of conspiracy — like 100% for the socialist candidate versus the others. Is any of that true?”
“Look, we had a problem, a deep problem with voting in America,” Clayton stated. “We had race-based discrimination around voting. It was identified,” he stated.
“I think we’ve done a pretty darn good job on access. I don’t hear anybody claiming that they don’t have access to the ballot box,” Clayton stated. “There was a second element to it, which was election integrity. Making sure that once everybody has access, that their vote actually counts…On the integrity side, we’re doing an absolutely terrible job. And the American people are right to question it.”
“Jay, here’s the issue,” stated Quick. “California’s election law allows ballots by election day to be counted, and permit same-day registration. That means tabulation typically continues for weeks. I mean, that doesn’t sound like fraud. You can argue whether the law makes sense, but that doesn’t sound like a fraudulent situation.”
“No, there’s a great phrase: opportunity for fraud,” Clayton stated.
“Why does it always go that way with the mail in votes? Why is it always a hundred percent Democrats are voting in the mail in?” Kernen requested, implying that therein lay the “opportunity for fraud.”
“Or why can’t you count them like they do in other jurisdictions on the same day as Election Day?” Clayton stated.
“Well, if you mail them in on election day, they’re not going to be there on Election Day,” Quick stated. “But those are questions with the law. It doesn’t suggest that there’s necessarily fraud here. I’m not saying there’s not fraud. I’m saying there’s not necessarily fraud there.”
“What it is is it makes the opportunity for fraud so much greater when that is not necessary,” Clayton stated.
Watch the clip above by way of CNBC.
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