Bill Pulte 'deeply unqualified' to lead U.S. intelligence efforts, Jeffries says

By — Geoff Bennett Geoff Bennett By — Stephanie Kotuby Stephanie Kotuby By — Alexa Gold Alexa Gold Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bill-pulte-deeply-unqualified-to-lead-u-s-intelligence-efforts-jeffries-says Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio On Tuesday, the House passed a bill that will fund immigration and border enforcement agencies. The package passed in the Senate last week and heads to the president's desk. Attention now turns to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Democrats are united in their opposition to it. Geoff Bennett spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about that vote and the Democratic agenda. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: Late this afternoon, the U.S. House passed a $70 billion spending bill that will fund immigration and border enforcement agencies. The package passed in the Senate last week and now heads to the president's desk. Attention in Congress now turns to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA, and a key provision that is set to expire on Friday. Democrats are united in their opposition of its reauthorization, citing, among other reasons, President Trump's selection of Bill Pulte to temporarily lead U.S. intelligence efforts. I spoke earlier with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries about that upcoming vote and the Democratic agenda moving forward. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, welcome back to the "News Hour." Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): Great to be with you. Geoff Bennett: You have said that you will not support renewing the country's warrantless spy powers, Section 702, so long as Bill Pulte remains as acting director of national intelligence. Why make his appointment a red line? Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: Bill Pulte is deeply unqualified to serve as acting director of national intelligence and is deeply dangerous. He's got no national security experience, no military experience, and no law enforcement experience. In fact, the statute explicitly requires that any person occupying this position of great sensitivity have national security experience in their professional background. Bill Pulte has zero of that. He's also someone who has clearly demonstrated a willingness to weaponize the federal government against Donald Trump's perceived adversaries. And so under no circumstances should we trust the privacy, interests, or national security interests of the American people with Bill Pulte on top of Donald Trump and Kash Patel. Geoff Bennett: Is this fundamentally a fight about a single personnel decision or is this a broader statement about Democrats not trusting this administration to responsibly use surveillance authority? Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: Democrats definitively do not trust this administration to responsibly use surveillance authority,