[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Bill Pulte

  President Trump has installed a loyalist, Bill Pulte, as the Acting 
Director of National Intelligence.
  He has zero national security experience. He has worked with the 
private sector and in real estate. He has never had a security 
clearance before this job. He has never handled classified information 
before this job. And now, today, at this moment, he heads up 18 
different intelligence Agencies in the United States.
  He used to be the head of Federal Housing--that was his job given by 
President Trump--and he demonstrated his character at that job. He used 
Housing records--private Housing records--to go after President Trump's 
enemies. Just think of what is possible with him at the top of our 
intelligence community.
  Now, President Trump placed him there to do two things: One, to focus 
on politicizing our elections; and, secondly, to use the intelligence 
community for the goals he has because he is obsessed with meddling 
with both.
  You just have to use President Trump's own words to understand the 
story here. This isn't hyperbole. At the State of the Union, President 
Trump declared that the only way Democrats could win in the midterms is 
if they cheat. Just weeks earlier, he called for Republicans to 
``nationalize'' elections in 15 states.
  This year alone, he has repeated claims that the elections are rigged 
more than 100 times. Those words have been backed up by action. He has 
attempted to seize ballots in Georgia, my home State of Michigan, and 
Arizona. He has sued 30 States in total for their voter rolls.
  He has pushed Congress over and over again to pass the SAVE America 
Act, which would disenfranchise millions of voters across the country.
  He dismantled the Election Assistance Commission, which helps every 
State carry out their elections.
  He has pushed the postal service to restrict mail-in voting.
  He has refused to rule out sending U.S. uniformed troops or law 
enforcement to the polls to interfere in the elections come November.
  And he has pressed the Supreme Court to go after and gut parts of the 
Voting Rights Act, allowing States to silence the voters, particularly 
minority voters.
  Second, he has tried to weaponize our intelligence community. He has 
declassified information to support false claims about elections and 
sow doubt in our democracy. He has directed the CIA, the NSA, and other 
intelligence Agencies to target his enemies. He has created a 
weaponization working group to implement that order. And he has sent 
the former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to raid 
ballots in Fulton County, GA; something that the intelligence community 
has no business doing.
  Now, President Trump is giving a speech tonight. Bill Pulte is now at 
the center of this. President Trump was very open; he tweeted about 
putting him in this job specifically to use the intelligence 
community's power to support his false claims.
  Tonight, in the President's address to the Nation, he is expected to 
say how, again, our elections are being rigged and attempt to cherry-
pick intelligence to declassify.
  But let us remember: Whatever he brings up, President Trump's team 
already saw what happened in 2020. He was the President of the United 
States during those elections. If his intelligence community at that 
time saw information, looked it over, and then decided that the 
election wasn't rigged, that was because that was what was presented to 
them as factual.
  You are telling me that the President now, all these years later, 
wants to relitigate what he was in charge of in 2020, and choosing to 
do it 3 months before the midterm elections. Call me skeptical.
  And all of this is happening as Bill Pulte is right there as our 
Acting DNI.
  Tulsi Gabbard going down to Georgia was not enough to soothe the 
President. Bill Pulte is now his yes-man to do just that. He has gone 
from being unqualified for this role to dangerous to democracy.
  With the bill, we will ensure that people who serve as the Acting 
Director of National Intelligence actually have some national security 
experience needed to do this job, they treat it responsibly, not on 
behalf of one party, not on behalf of one man but on behalf of 
Americans, to keep us safe. That is the mandate of the intelligence 
community. It is what we were trained to do--and I say that as a CIA 
officer--and this President is corrupting that with his choice as DNI.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.