Bill Pulte Is About To Do His Worst

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While only Democrats will say this out loud, Republicans also know that Bill Pulte is neither fit nor qualified to serve as acting director of national intelligence (DNI). He doesn’t meet the qualifications for the job and is widely considered to be a hatchet man for Donald Trump who will use this position to go after the president’s enemies.

After all, that’s what he has done as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a position he will keep as though overseeing the various intelligence services is a part-time job. However, as acting DNI, he won’t just be able to pull the mortgage information of Democrats and others who crossed Trump; he’ll be able to do real damage.

That is why senators had a plan earlier this week.

They wanted to quickly confirm Jay Clayton, the US attorney whom Trump nominated as permanent replacement of Tulsi Gabbard. This would not only have prevented Pulte from setting foot into the DNI’s office, but it also would have paved the way for passing an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That measure, which allows US spy agencies to electronically surveil foreigners without a warrant, expired last week for the first time ever.

While Section 702 usually enjoys bipartisan support (although there are lawmakers from both parties who want to add some safeguards to FISA to protect American citizens from government eavesdropping), Democrats this time refused to vote for any kind of extension while Pulte could use it as a weapon against them.

That is why Republicans scheduled a confirmation hearing for Clayton on Wednesday, and it looked as though he might get confirmed quickly in a rare show of bipartisanship.

Then Trump messed up that plan.

Hours before the hearing, he stated in a social media post that he would delay Clayton’s nomination. In addition, the president said that he would also not sign an extension of Section 702 until a FISA bill also included the SAVE America Act, the voter suppression bill that he has been trying to push through the Senate.

Democrats were predictably outraged.

“What we’re witnessing is an extraordinary display of dysfunction from a president who seems determined to turn America’s national security into a political bargaining chip,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Over the past two weeks, President Trump has careened from one personnel decision and political demand to the next — first installing Bill Pulte, then nominating Jay Clayton, then demanding unrelated legislation be attached to FISA reauthorization, and now threatening to derail both the confirmation process and a bipartisan reauthorization effort.”

That may be a little naïve.

While this looks like typical Trumpian chaos, what if it is instead a ploy to ensure that Pulte can first help the president pursue some of his vendettas before making way for someone more qualified (and while Clayton is a much better choice, he is also a hack who may not actually meet the requirements for the position)?

In other words, we think that Trump will drag this out for as long as possible so that he has a DNI who will help him pursue his enemies instead of keeping the nation safe.