00:00President Trump delayed the nomination of Jay Clayton as the next permanent director of national
00:04intelligence in an attempt to force Congress to pass his voter ID bill. What does one thing have
00:11to do with the other? Let me explain. President Trump appointed Bill Pulte, a man with no
00:16intelligence experience, as acting DNI earlier this month. Zero. That raised some bipartisan
00:22eyebrows. Pulte also raised concerns for his actions as a kind of political retribution
00:28enforcer for the president. Suffice it to say, he was not the popular choice. Democrats and
00:33Republicans did not like the idea of him in this DNI job and forced the president to act quickly to
00:39name someone else as a permanent replacement. The carrot at the end of that stick was the Democrats
00:45agreeing to vote to reauthorize part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. So Trump
00:52nominated Jay Clayton, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is right
00:56here in New York City. Things aren't going according to plan as far as the president is concerned,
01:01though. In a Wednesday Truth Social post, Trump said, quote, Republicans moved so fast with the
01:06hearings of the great Jay Clayton that Pulte would be gone before the dumbocrats would vote on FISA.
01:12Now, the dumbocrats are saying they will vote against FISA. We know how much the president likes
01:18being backed into a corner. So he went ahead and made the extremely unpopular Pulte acting director
01:23anyway against the wishes of both parties. And then he added a little extra zinger, posting, quote,
01:29to add a slight bit of intrigue, but for the good of the nation and the people of our country,
01:34I will not approve FISA without the Save America Act going along with it. And that is how the voting
01:40act comes into play.
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