Continue reading "Democrats Torch America's Spy Powers to Throw a Tantrum Over Trump's DNI Pick""/>
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Breaking News

Democrats Torch America's Spy Powers to Throw a Tantrum Over Trump's DNI Pick

Congress just voted to let one of America's most critical national security tools die on the vine — not because they have a principled objection to surveillance, mind you, but because President Trump picked someone they don't like to be the interim head of the intelligence community. The House voted 198-218 on Wednesday to reject a simple three-week extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with 199 Democrats voting to kill the measure. The program expired Friday for the first time in its nearly 18-year history.

The whole meltdown centers on Bill Pulte, whom Trump tapped as acting Director of National Intelligence after Tulsi Gabbard resigned from the post. Democrats and Republicans alike have been apoplectic about the appointment because Pulte — who also heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency — doesn't have a traditional intelligence background. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threw a fit on the House floor, declaring that "Bill Pulte has no national security experience, no law enforcement experience and no military experience. So, it is highly irresponsible to try to elevate Bill Pulte."

Irresponsible? You know what's irresponsible, Hakeem? Letting your party's leaders abuse the program to spy on a political rival. But sure, tell us more about how you're the adults in the room.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was apoplectic, "Today, we just offered a simple, clean, three-week extension of FISA national security law," Johnson said. "The Democrats, 199 of them, voted against a clean, three-week extension for political purposes." He's right. This wasn't some sweeping overhaul bill stuffed with poison pills. It was a 21-day bridge to keep the lights on. And Democrats torched it anyway.

Now, we should be honest — 19 House Republicans also voted against the extension, and only 7 Democrats broke ranks to support it. The bill was brought up under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority, so the math was always going to be tough. But the bottom line is that 199 Democrats made a conscious choice to blow up the vote.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to his credit, put the absurdity in plain English. "This is a program that saves American lives," Thune said. "And I have to ask the question: I can't for the life of me figure out why the Democrats continue to support policies that make this country less safe." He tried three separate times to pass the extension by unanimous consent in the Senate. All three attempts were blocked.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he wouldn't support FISA renewal without "a clear guarantee that Mr. Pulte will not serve as acting DNI." So there it is. They're literally holding national security hostage over a staffing pick. These are the same people who told us for years that questioning the intelligence community was tantamount to treason. Now they want to defund it because the wrong guy is sitting in the corner office.

President Trump, meanwhile, announced Thursday that he'll nominate Jay Clayton — the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman — as the permanent DNI. Trump said of Pulte's interim role, "He's going to do a good job. He's going to be there for a very short period of time. He will be superseded and replaced by somebody that's going to have the job permanently." In other words, the whole tantrum was over a temp gig.

The Department of Justice had previously investigated whether Pulte and his team interfered in ongoing investigations, and Democrats have hammered him for launching probes into mortgage fraud tied to some of Trump's political opponents. Fair or not, none of that justifies nuking Section 702. You don't burn down the house because you don't like the new landlord.

As of Friday, the authority that lets U.S. intelligence agencies surveil foreign targets without individual warrants will go dark for the first time since the program was created. Every counterterrorism analyst, every national security professional who depends on 702 intercepts — they're all about to get a lot less effective at their jobs. And Democrats will sleep just fine, because they got their headline.

Remember this the next time Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries climbs on a soapbox to lecture us about keeping Americans safe. They had the chance to do exactly that with a clean three-week extension. They chose politics instead.

As reported by ABC News, this marks the first-ever lapse in FISA's legal authorization. Historic, all right. Just not the kind of history anybody should be proud of.

Like this Article? Share it!


Most Popular

Most Popular

Comments are closed.