President Donald Trump says he wants incoming Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte to “start the process” of firing intelligence community officials, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday.
Trump on Tuesday tapped Pulte to take over for the current DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned in May after her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Pulte, who will take over in the interim when Gabbard’s resignation becomes official on June 30, has apparently been tasked with reducing the number of employees at the 18 intelligence agencies over which the DNI presides.
“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal, referring to the intelligence community.
TRUMP NAMES BILL PULTE ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The selection of Pulte, who currently serves as Trump’s Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has reportedly irked a swath of lawmakers, including former Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who publicly criticized the move.
“We don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there,” Thune said.
But Pulte’s outsider status was explicitly what made Trump inclined to pick him the first place, he explained to the Wall Street Journal.
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“You’re less shackled,” he told the outlet. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump assuaged concerns that Pulte would have difficulty being confirmed by the Senate if picked for the role on a permanent basis. He ensured the public that an active search for a permanent replacement was ongoing and that Pulte’s interim status would benefit him.
“Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he reduced the size, in conjunction with me…and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in…he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal.
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Pulte, who also chairs the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government-sponsored entities (GSEs), has already affected legislative outcomes.
After six Senate Republicans joined with the Democrats to block a bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., warned that Democrats would not vote for the reauthorization as long as Pulte was in charge of intelligence.
“I don’t see how you get the necessary Democrat votes… that would get them to 60,” Warner said.
Fox News Digital contacted the offices of Leader Thune and Senator Warner and reached out to Bill Pulte for further clarity.
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