As Jay Clayton took his seat before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, the scene was starkly different from 28 days ago.

Back in June, just hours before Clayton’s confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence was about to start, President Donald Trump abruptly ordered his nominee not to appear.

This time around, Clayton was very much in attendance, defending his views about voter fraud and his role in the subpoenas of New York Times reporters over the weekend.

“I’m absolutely committed to and respect our First Amendment,” said Clayton, adding he sought to “limit to the greatest extent possible any intrusion into the operation of the free press.”

Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the committee will hold a business meeting next week to vote on advancing the pick to the floor. If confirmed, Clayton will replace Bill Pulte, whose temporary appointment last month riled many Democrats after the resignation of former DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Clayton’s nomination had initially raised bipartisan hopes, with some seeing it as an olive branch that could help lawmakers move past debates that had derailed reauthorization of a key spy powers authority.

But the mood had already soured somewhat after Trump tapped the brakes last month, citing a push for unrelated voter ID legislation and a desire to first see a replacement for Clayton’s current role as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

And Democrats on Wednesday asked pointed questions about the subpoenas, which Clayton authorized in his capacity as U.S. attorney after the Times journalists reported on security features of the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One.

Clayton defended his actions, saying he followed the “protocols” in place for the Justice Department, but wouldn’t specify whether he or anyone in his office spoke with the White House beforehand.

“This doesn’t sound like the proper independent legal process that we would normally expect for issuance of a subpoena. The characteristics surrounding it seem rushed, aggressive, with an unnecessary urgency,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said.

Democrats also pressed Clayton on how he would approach the topic of election security, as Trump prepares a Thursday night speech to the nation that is expected to touch on the president’s continuing claims of widespread voter fraud.

“I’m not an election denier,” Clayton told ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., while dodging a series of questions about who won the 2020 election. “Joe Biden was certified as the president of the United States.”

“We have substantial work to do in improving our electoral processes. It’s part of national security, and I feel strongly about that,” Clayton added.

Another blockbuster hearing was happening at the same time Wednesday morning, as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general.

Democrats on the Intelligence panel said they were frustrated by Trump’s upending Clayton’s scheduled confirmation hearing in June, blaming the president for tanking efforts to reauthorize what’s known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which has now been dark for more than a month.

“I can’t think of any other instance in the history of this committee where a president sends a nominee up, and then in a bipartisan way, we say we really want to move heaven and earth to get this nominee moving through quickly because of the importance of the position — and then the president decided the Senate was moving too fast on his own nominee,” Warner said.

But Cotton said he believed Clayton was committed to continuing cuts at the ODNI to match Republicans’ vision of a “lean and efficient organization to keep bureaucratic intelligence agencies at bay.”

He praised his work as a U.S. attorney, citing the indictment of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and saying Clayton had gone after “some of the worst of the worst national security threats, including foreign enemies who put innocent Americans at risk and have American blood on their hands.”

As multiple senators pressed Clayton on who won the 2020 election, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said Clayton was “not being honest and forthright” about the issue.

“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?” Ossoff asked.

Warner said he was “bitterly disappointed” with Clayton’s responses about the 2020 election as well as Clayton saying he did not know about Gabbard’s involvement in the FBI’s raid of the Fulton County, Ga., election office.

“We tried umpteen different ways to give you the ability to just acknowledge that Joe Biden was the president,” Warner said.

“I’ve acknowledged, senator, that Joe Biden was president,” Clayton said at the end of the hearing.

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