Hazing poor Jay Clayton

I almost felt sorry for Jay Clayton, the nominee to be the director of national intelligence.

Clayton looked foolish, but truculent. He was trapped. He was helpless.

Senator Jon Ossoff wouldn't let up. 

Jay Clayton

Jon Ossoff

Senator Jon Ossoff: "Who won the 2020 election?

Nominee Jay Clayton: "Ah, you know, I'm not going to do this with you."

Ossoff: "This is a job interview. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee?"

Clayton: "Yes."

Ossoff: "Who won the 2020 election?

Clayton: "Like I said I'm not going to get into that with you."

Ossoff: "You're not being honest or forthright. It's a simple question, Mr. Clayton. Who won the 2020 election? Answer the question."

Clayton: "I have answered it."

Ossoff: "Answer it."

Clayton: [shrug]

Ossoff: "You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you ask to lead America's intelligence community? Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know. You know. Everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?"

It goes on and on. 

Jay Clayton is forbidden to say that Joe Biden became the U.S. president because he won the election. Those words cannot be uttered and remain in the good graces of the man who had nominated him to be director of national intelligence. It is another iteration of the people in the Hans Christian Anderson story who see what they see, but cannot admit that they see that the emperor is naked.

This was a hazing ritual. It is a loyalty test to be part of a select group, a kind of fraternity: a position in Trump's administration. The fraternity out-sources the humiliation part to the Democrats on a Senate committee, this time the Intelligence Committee. Everyone knows it is coming. The nominees are prepared with their approved language of evasion, the passive voice. "Joe Biden was confirmed." The hazing proves the nominees' loyalty to Trump by forcing them to do something humiliating in front of witnesses and cameras, something that will prove they will suffer any indignity to stay true to the boss. They are forced to claim they are honest and forthright while saying they cannot see that the emperor has no clothes. 

Clayton stood his ground. He maintained a tough "you can't make me" demeanor. He never hung his head. He took the whipping like a man.

Senator Ossoff advanced his presidential chances. He looked cruel enough to be a president. He doesn't have a gravelly voice, and he has not yet grown a beard, and he looks fit but not jacked. Still, he appears to have plenty of testosterone, at least a T-level sufficient to torture a helpless pledge. On the day that the Secretary of Defence (War) Pete Hegseth announced the Department would do testosterone testing and augmentation of the troops with a goal of increasing the fighting spirit of our military, Ossoff displayed the masculine aggression Hegseth admires in a warrior. Ossoff turned the screws of the torture device, forcing Clayton to perform a submission ritual, choosing career advancement over truth and honor.  It is consistent with the Republican brand and expectation for fierceness. American soldiers give no quarter. When someone is down and helpless, they are where we want them. American soldiers don't take prisoners. 

Clayton stuck to the claim of blindness. We know the routine. Boomers recall the TV show Hogan's Heroes and the Sergeant Shultz character.

"I know nothing. I see nothing. I hear nothing. I did not even get up this morning."

If being willing to torture a Republican is proof of ability to command troops into danger or order federal execution of a prisoner, Ossoff passed the test. He is masculine enough.

The job of the national security director is to walk into the Oval Office and tell the president things he doesn't want to hear — that an adversary's capability is real, that the assessment of the sources do not support the policy, that the intelligence says "no." 

The hazing was not a gotcha. It was a litmus test. Clayton passed Trump's test but failed the nation's.

Click below for a six minute video of Clayton answering questions by Senators Ossoff.

Click here

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