‘Don’t think he has a prayer’

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Wednesday blasted President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. intelligence community as an “incendiary attack dog” who has no path to being confirmed by the Senate.

The remarks on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” from the retiring North Carolina senator added to the growing backlash against Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, whom Trump appointed acting director of national intelligence on Tuesday on top of his housing role.

“I don’t think he has a prayer” of making it through the Senate and becoming the permanent DNI, Tillis said of Pulte.

“Whoever told the president to go ahead and commit to this publicly before vetting it should lose their jobs, because they should know that the math just works against Pulte being confirmed,” he said.

But the senator also acknowledged that the Trump administration could skirt the issue by simply leaving Pulte in place with the “acting” title instead of trying to push for full confirmation.

Pulte, who has no known prior experience in an intelligence role, is widely viewed as a Trump loyalist who has targeted the president’s political foes during his tenure leading the housing regulatory agency.

Those targets include Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who both faced allegations of mortgage-related wrongdoing by Pulte.

Trump said Pulte will serve as acting DNI while continuing to work as FHFA director and chairman of the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte is succeeding outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who said last month that she would resign June 30.

Tillis told CNBC that Pulte “got removed from his family board the moment the family no longer owned 51%,” and later made such critical statements “that his father and aunt disavowed him having any association with their family trust.”

Tillis was referring to reports that Pulte, a scion of the founder of homebuilding giant PulteGroup, was pushed off the company’s board in 2020 amid disagreements with other directors. The senator also appeared to reference a statement from the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, clarifying that Bill Pulte, who maintains a highly active social media presence, does not speak for his family “in any capacity.”

“Why do I bring that up? I bring it up because it suggests a temperament that’s probably not right for the DNI role,” Tillis said.

“I don’t believe he’s ever had a security clearance. He clearly has no experience in intelligence, he has no geopolitical experience, no international connections — the sorts of things you would look for” in a DNI, Tillis said.

“He’s got a structural problem. He simply doesn’t have 51 votes on the Senate floor, and he may not even have the votes in [the Senate intelligence] committee, and we just need to tell the president that clearly,” the senator said.

Tillis isn’t the only Republican to voice concerns about Pulte.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary election last month after Trump backed a rival Republican, said during an interview Tuesday at CNBC’s CEO Council Summit that Pulte does not appear “competent” to serve as acting DNI.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, “We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there.”

The White House repeated a comment from Tuesday when asked Wednesday about Tillis’ comments.

“The President chooses the best and most talented people to serve in his Cabinet,” spokesman Davis Ingle said by email. “Bill Pulte is a great selection and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people.”

But Pulte has rubbed members of the administration the wrong way in the past, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who reportedly nearly came to blows with the housing chief last year.

Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, Bessent said “Many teams squabble in the locker room and go out in field,” when asked about Pulte.

Tillis CNBC suggested that Pulte’s promotion could further imperil efforts to get Congress to pass key legislation — some of which has already been jeopardized by other controversies, such as the now-scrapped $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

“They need to understand timing,” he said of the Trump administration. “My God, you put forth this restitution fund when we’re trying to get Homeland Security funded for three years, and you think that’s going to go well in the same week.”

“Then you want to get [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section] 702 authorized, and you put an incendiary attack dog like Pulte out on the agenda,” he said.

“Whoever these people are in the White House need to get the hell out of the White House,” Tillis said. “I am tired of amateur hour.”

—Garrett Downs and Luke Fountain contributed to this report.