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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

'Open revolt': Republicans just can't with Trump's ABSURD pick for DNI

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MS NOW, Jen Psaki

Politics, News, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant

4.4975 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While it is not unusual for Donald Trump to appoint completely unqualified people to important jobs in his administration, his choice of Bill Pulte, a Mar-a-Lago suck-up who Trump had already gifted the position of director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the new Director of National Intelligence is too far for many Republicans who are already dealing with the burden of association with Trump's unpopularity. Senator Adam Schiff, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, discusses with Jen Psaki.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Okay, there's tons going on. I'm going to talk with Senator Schiff about all of that. But I also

0:04.6

just want to know, because yesterday was a big election day. As of today, we are exactly five months out

0:11.3

from November's midterm election. And five months out, there are just so many. There are many,

0:16.9

more promising signs now than I would say there even were a month ago, certainly than two months ago. And they're all for Democrats as they look to retake majorities in both houses of Congress.

0:25.9

Now, after last night's packed primary night, Democrats may have reason to hope that their

0:31.0

path back to the Senate majority could run through Iowa. I mean, immediately after Democratic

0:36.2

candidate Josh Turk won his primary last night,

0:39.2

the Cook political report shifted its rating of the Iowa Senate race in the Democrats favor, moving

0:44.0

it from likely Republican to lean Republican. And that's in a state, by the way, that Trump has won

0:50.8

three times, including by more than a dozen points, just a year and a half ago.

0:56.1

So that means this race is really in play.

0:58.5

And I'm going to be speaking with him later in the show about the path forward now and his

1:01.9

plans to face off against Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson to fill that seat that

1:07.4

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is set to vacate early next year.

1:10.9

But last night didn't just provide a glimmer of hope for Democrats in a state Trump has

1:14.7

long dominated. It also showed that Trump's death grip on his party may actually be slipping

1:21.3

a little bit, at least in Iowa. I mean, that's because the Trump endorsed Republican candidate

1:25.6

for governor, Congressman Randy Feinstra, who was kind of expected by most to pull out on top here, lost his primary to a MAHA candidate endorsed by Charlie Kirk's former Super PAC.

1:37.3

And there were lots of dynamics in that race, but that loss is still notable for Trump, given that Republicans just last month touted his endorsement

1:45.8

as the most powerful in history. Of course, everything always has to be so extreme with them.

1:51.9

But to be fair, Trump hasn't exactly spent much time or energy, really, on boosting his party's chances

1:58.0

in November. I mean, he literally said, I don't care about the midterms,

...

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