What to know about Trump's controversial pick of Bill Pulte for acting spy chief

By — Liz Landers Liz Landers By — Doug Adams Doug Adams Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-to-know-about-trumps-controversial-pick-of-bill-pulte-for-acting-spy-chief Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Trump on Tuesday named Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. Pulte, a loyal Trump ally who has frequently targeted the president’s opponents, has no background in intelligence. The selection drew swift criticism from Democrats, while the Senate’s top Republican also raised concerns. Liz Landers has the latest. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: President Trump today named Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. Pulte, a loyal Trump ally who has frequently targeted the president's political opponents, has no background in national intelligence. As acting DNI, he will oversee the nation's 18 intelligence agencies while also keeping his current role as a housing official. That's according to Mr. Trump's announcement on social media. The appointment drew swift criticism from Democrats, while the Senate's top Republican also raised concerns about the selection. We're joined now by White House correspondent Liz Landers. So, Liz, Mr. Pulte currently heads the agencies that deal with housing and mortgages. What more should we know about his background? Liz Landers: He comes from this homebuilding empire, the Pulte Group. He's a Floridian by birth. He's relatively young at 38 years old. And, as you mentioned, he's currently the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's not clear what his intelligence background is. And, today, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator, briefed reporters in the White House Briefing Room today, and myself and three other reporters asked about his qualifications. Here is our exchange. Congressional statute says any appointee for the position of the director of national intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise. What extensive national security expertise does he have? Dr. Mehmet Oz: Ma'am, you're asking me a question that's out of my lane. I'm so focused on making sure Americans are healthy that I had not been looking at what other agencies do. (Crosstalk) Liz Landers: Now, Dr. Oz says that he trusts the president's judgment in appointing Mr. Pulte to this role. And President Trump defended this pick on TRUTH Social writing today that Pulte has -- quote -- "deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the markets and over $10 trillion at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac." Geoff Bennett: So, Bill Pulte, as we said, replaces Tulsi Gabb