What A Day - Trump’s Dangerous New Spy Boss

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he's appointing the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, as acting Director of National Intelligence. The news comes after Tulsi Gabbard announced she was resigning from the position amid her husband's battle with cancer. So who is Bill Pulte? From what we know, Pulte is another Trump-henchman type whose only qualification for the high-stakes position seems to be the ability to do just about anything Trump wants him to do. And that's raised red flags among many people, including our guest, Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly. He serves on the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.And in headlines, Russia launches a massive attack against Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies on Capitol Hill, and whac-a-mole? More like whac-a-manhole! Videos of people popping out of New York City sewers are popping up online.Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, June 3rd. I'm Erin Ryan in for Jane Koston, and this is What a Day, the show with no skin in the game when the Knicks-Spers NBA Finals matchup tips off tonight, but is enjoying the good-natured Texas New York rivalry nonetheless. On today's show, Russia's attacks on Ukraine intensify and Secretary of State Marco Rubio argues semantics with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He wasn't partying at a UFC fight in Miami while other members of the administration were in Pakistan. for Iran negotiations. No, he was co-located with the president so that he could immediately inform him about events occurring halfway around the world. In addition to having served as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, Acting U.S. archivist, and Acting Head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Marco Rubio is also President Trump's Human Telephone. But before we get to those stories, today President Donald Trump announced that he's appointing Bill Pulte as acting director

of National Intelligence. The post recently vacated by Tulsi Gabbard after she either left willingly or was forced out by the Trump administration. Pulte is another Trump henchman type, whose only qualification for the position, seems to be an ability to do just about anything Trump wants him to do. This has raised some red flags among people in the know, including today's guest, Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who serves as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Kelly, welcome back to What a Day. Good to be here. Thank you. All right. On Tuesday, President Trump announced he's appointing the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard's resignation.

Now, what was your reaction when you heard the news? Well, I was, I knew a little bit about him, and I was shocked, I think, like, you know, most Americans that understand this job. and the requirement that, first of all, you should have some experience either in the military and the intelligence community, and he has none of that. And this is a big job. This is managing all the intelligence that goes to the president, but also the 18 intelligence agencies. Think about that for a second.

18 agencies. And when the president announced this, they also said he was going to stay in his other job. I mean, this is not prioritizing. the safety of Americans and the national security of our country. So it's a problem. And the president should wake up and realize he made a big mistake here and find somebody who's actually qualified for the position. When he was at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte was instrumental in the indictments

of Trump vows, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James. What does it say to you that this is who president, Trump wants in his top intelligence position? Yeah, maybe put him there for that reason, because he's loyal to the president and he's willing to weaponize the federal government against political opponents of the president. And that's wrong. We've seen it over and over again. I've experienced this myself where I said something the president didn't like. And then he responded with, I should be hanged, executed, prosecuted, and then had the Department of Defense come after me after 25 years of service to this country to try to reduce me in rank because I said something that was truthful,

which was in the law. So that's who Bill Pulte is. He's a guy that will do the president's bidding and will use the tools he has in a government agency to go after political opponents of the president. So maybe that's why he put him in this job as the Director of National Intelligence, because the DNI does have a lot of levers he can pull, a lot of tools at his disposal, to go after the American people. What are some of those levers and what are those tools look like? Well, when you're in charge of 18 intelligence agencies, I mean, you're managing everything from the CIA to the National Security Agency,

to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial Agency. I mean, it's just kind of endless. I mean, think about that for a second. 18 agencies, this is an enormous responsibility. And your job is to keep the American people safe, to prevent terrorists from attacking our nation, to make sure that our adversaries don't have, you know, the ability to come after us,

to make sure that our military is just well prepared and has the information it needs that in case we wind up in a conflict with another nation, we are best prepared to be successful in that conflict. And you put a guy that has no experience at this in this role, went by statute. And it was written by Susan Collins, as my understanding, who sits on the Intelligence Committee with me, is that she added a requirement that you have to be an experienced person to have this role. Now, of course, he's going to be acting. And I think that's often why this president puts people in as acting roles, especially when he realizes that they're unqualified for the job. As you mentioned, you've been a very public target of the Trump administration this term. as someone who's seen firsthand how this administration goes after the president's enemies,

combined with the fact that Pulte has no intelligence experience, beyond what you've already enumerated, do you have any more concerns as he takes over the role? Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, that's it. That's the bottom line. He's not qualified for the job. I don't think he's going to be able to do the job. And, you know, the job is at the nexus of every individual's safety and the safety of their family. So you combine that with his his willingness to use whatever power he had in his former role and weaponize that power against the opponents of this president. And you've got a recipe for a disastrous term. And by the way, probably his own personal experience in his job. It's not going to be good.

I mean, how many minutes were we into this nomination for him to be the acting D&I? And you And you have Republicans in the United States Senate coming out and being very vocal about how he is not qualified for this. So we're in the middle of a war right now. You're a retired Navy captain and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee. How does the DNI interface with the military at a time like this? Well, when you have 18 intelligence agencies, there's a lot of movement of information around. and you've got to figure out where the resources go and what we need to be focused on. And, you know, that's the job of the Director of National Intelligence.

And, you know, he's got his own organization, whoever is in that job, whether it's Tulsi Gabbard or, and by the way, I didn't support Tulsi's nomination, but I never questioned her, you know, experience. You know, she had relevant qualifications. He does not. But you've got to do an incredible amount of coordination. you know, every single day. And this president also left him in his last job as well. I mean, what does that say? That says that Donald Trump doesn't, you know, highly consider the importance of this role. You know, I think it even indicates that he has little value in intelligence as something

he needs to do his job. Back in 2004, as you mentioned, when the DNI role was first established, Congress made it law that anyone nominated for the position, as you mentioned, needed to have extensive national security expertise. Is there anything legally Congress can do here to step in and make sure that those guidelines are actually enforced? Yeah, we're looking at that right now. And, you know, we've got a budget reconciliation process, you know, coming up here where we'll have an amendment process. And, you know, this is one of the things that we can try to address in that process. There's a difference between being an acting person put in the role and being the nominee where you have to be confirmed before you go into the role. And this is brand new to us today,

so we're trying to sort this out. Is there anything else before we go that the American people should know about Bill Pulte? Well, I don't have all the background on them. I do know this. He didn't serve in the military. He hasn't served in any intelligence agency. He has no relevant. He has no experience to do this job. Well, Senator Kelly, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. Appreciate it. That was my conversation with Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.

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So I was going to start this off by saying, Brett, that I'm a little puzzled as to what the actual strategy of negotiation is. My sentiments exactly, Fox News host John Roberts. In the latest Iran War, he said, she said, two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported that Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire with the U.S. in Israel. The reports came as tensions flared in Israel's separate but related fight against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. President Trump disputed the claim on Truth Social Tuesday, saying talks were continuing, quote, where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, it's time one way or another for you to make a deal.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Marco Rubio gave his first public testimony since the Iran war started. There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago or just a year ago, they were refusing to even mention, much less into discussions about. Naturally, Rubio defended the Trump administration's approach to Iran, as well as other global hotspots. Lawmakers also grilled him about the status of U.S. foreign assistance to respond to diseases such as the Ebola outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rubio insisted that the dismantlement of U.S. aid had not affected Washington's ability to assist with global humanitarian responses. Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Ukraine in an attack that killed.

at least 22 civilians and wounded 138 others, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday. In response, Ukrainian President Volonimir Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support. Per the AP, he described the attack as, quote, an explicit statement by Russia. If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue. Why is it a crime to go into a manhole? It's dangerous.

It's the same as Jaywalking or walking down the middle of a high. highway. Add that to the list of questions I didn't think I'd ever need answered. That was an NBC news reporter talking to retired NYPD captain John Monaghan about, wait for it, recent online videos that show people popping in and out of manholes across New York City. New New York City-based fear unlocked. Now, why would anyone ever voluntarily enter a sewer? The senior law enforcement official told NBC News so far the best guess is that people are, quote, scouring the system for valuables that get into the sewage. Or maybe they've been trained. under Master Shredder. And that's the news. Before we go, starting June 8th, What a Day episodes

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