Pressed on Pulte’s role, Trump says the quiet part loud, emphasizes ‘rigged elections’
After critics raised concerns that the Trump loyalist would turn the DNI’s office into a partisan tool, the president gave them more reason to worry.
When Donald Trump announced this week that Bill Pulte, the highly controversial director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would serve as the acting director of national intelligence, the president’s move sent shockwaves through political and intelligence circles for the most obvious of reasons.
Pulte has literally no background in intelligence or national security, failing to meet the statutory qualifications for the office, and he’s earned a reputation as a hyperpartisan official who has routinely abused his office to target the White House’s perceived political foes. Complicating matters, MS NOW reported last fall that a federal grand jury investigated whether Pulte illegally shared sensitive information with unauthorized people.
MS NOW’s Chris Hayes added that Pulte’s “utterly insane” appointment only makes sense “if you want to turn the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus into a tool for domestic persecution and domination.”
With this in mind, the president announced during an unrelated White House event on Thursday afternoon that Pulte would fill the role temporarily and would not be formally nominated to succeed Tulsi Gabbard. But that’s not all Trump said.
Asked specifically why he sees Pulte as “the best person for the job,” the president’s answer meandered a bit (he spoke at some length about the potential sale value of Fannie Mae), before getting to the heart of the matter.
“He’s a very smart guy, and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc., etc.,” Trump told reporters. “I think he’d like to do it. I’d like to, I think he wants to do it very much, got a lot of energy … He’ll be very good.”
The whole point of the DNI position is to have an influential official who can oversee intelligence agencies and advise the White House on intelligence matters. Asked to defend his plainly outrageous personnel decision, the president didn’t mention any of this but focused instead on the work the Trump loyalist and partisan hatchet man might do on “rigged elections.”
It was a classic example of the Republican saying the quiet part loud: Trump’s own unscripted public comments suggested he wants an acting DNI to focus on his discredited election conspiracy theories and his perceived political foes, rather than the actual responsibilities of the office.
Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired 26-year veteran of the CIA, told Politico this week that Trump’s choice “will cause worry amongst [intelligence community] professionals that the DNI will be fully weaponized in support of going after Trump’s political enemies, given Pulte’s track record.” The president as much as confirmed those fears are well grounded.
The length of Pulte’s tenure, however, remains the subject of considerable debate. In just one week, the existing federal authority in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA, will expire, and while there’s a bipartisan effort underway to approve an extension, key Senate Democrats have told GOP leaders that unless Trump reverses course on Pulte’s appointment, they’re prepared to block the pending FISA extension.