Unlike his previously scheduled testimony that was abandoned last month, Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan whom President Trump nominated to succeed acting director of national intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte, actually showed up for his long-awaited confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Clayton spoke at length about his qualifications for the top intelligence job to members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Between the range of national security matters he has handled as a prosecutor, and his experience advising the intelligence community in different capacities, Clayton articulated the depth of his “significant national security experience” with ease.

Yet the ostensibly respectable alternative to Pulte passed up every opportunity Senate Democrats gave him to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions?” asked Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who failed to get Clayton to make any legitimate response.

Following a similarly heated exchange, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chair of the committee, seemed to lash out at Clayton over his failure to answer basic questions.

“I’ve known Mr. Clayton for some time … but I am bitterly disappointed,” Warner said. “We’ve tried umpteen different ways to give you the ability to just acknowledge that Joe Biden was the [fairly and duly elected] president.”