‘Don’t think you have a prayer’

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Wednesday criticized President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the US intelligence community as a “hot dog” with no way to be confirmed by the Senate.

CNBC’s “Squawk Box” comments from the retired North Carolina senator added to the feud with Bill Pulte, the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, whom Trump named acting director of national intelligence on Tuesday.

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

“Whoever told the president to continue to commit to this publicly before reviewing it should be out of a job, because he should know that the statistics work with Pulte’s confirmation,” he said.

But the senator also acknowledged that the Trump administration could try to sidestep the issue by simply leaving Pulte in an “acting” position instead of trying to push for a full confirmation.

Pulte, who has no previous experience in an intelligence role, is widely seen as a Trump loyalist who targeted the president’s political enemies during his time leading the housing agency.

Those targets include Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom are facing allegations of misconduct by Pulte related to mortgage lending.

Trump said Pulte will serve as acting DNI while continuing to serve as director of FHFA and chairman of the credit unions. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte succeeds outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who announced last month that she would resign on June 30.

Tillis told CNBC that Pulte was “removed from his family’s board when the family no longer owned 51%,” and later made critical statements that “his father and aunt denied that he had any ties to their family.”

Tillis was referring to reports that Pulte, co-founder of real estate giant PulteGroup, was ousted from the company’s board in 2020 amid disagreements with other directors. The senator also appeared to address a statement from the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, clarifying that Bill Pulte, who is heavily involved in social media, does not speak for his family “under any circumstances.”

“Why am I bringing that up? I’m bringing it up because it suggests an almost negative attitude towards the role of the DNI,” said Tillis.

“I don’t believe he ever had a security clearance. He obviously has no intelligence background, no country background, no international connections — the kinds of things you would want” in a DNI, Tillis said.

“He has a structural problem. He doesn’t have 51 votes in the Senate, and he might not even have the votes. [the Senate intelligence] committee, and we need to tell the president that clearly,” the senator said.

Tillis isn’t the only Republican to express concern about Pulte.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary election last month after Trump endorsed a Republican challenger, said during an interview Tuesday on CNBC’s Council of CEOs that Pulte doesn’t seem “fit” to serve as acting DNI.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday, “We don’t need an armed DNI, we need experts there.”

The White House and FHFA did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Tillis also on CNBC suggested that Pulte’s promotion could further dangerous efforts to get Congress to pass important legislation – some of which have already been jeopardized by other disputes, such as the now-defunct $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.

“They have to understand the timing,” he said of the Trump administration. “My God, you put out this recovery fund when we were trying to get Homeland Security funded for three years, and you think that’s going to be okay in one week.”

“Then you want to find out [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section] 702 is approved, and you put an attack dog like Pulte in the program,” he said.

“Whoever these people are in the White House they need to get the hell out of the White House,” Tillis said. “I’m tired of the novice hour.”