{"id":1489,"date":"2026-07-08T06:03:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2026-07-08T06:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:03:55","slug":"after-trumps-director-of-national-intelligence-pick-knives-are-out-for-the-whole-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1489","title":{"rendered":"After Trump&#8217;s Director of National Intelligence pick, knives are out for the whole office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/56\/a7\/c02568ad405eb2ff286e8f13bcea\/trump-national-intelligence-11226.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-v-5d6b1cb2=\"\"><!--[--><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">An ODNI official, granted anonymity to share details of internal office dynamics, said Gabbard herself was not opposed to seeing the office she headed vanish. \u201cSince day one, DNI Gabbard said she&#8217;d be willing to be the last Director of National Intelligence if that&#8217;s what was needed,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">A spokesperson for House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), while calling ODNI \u201cbloated,\u201d defended the office as \u201cthe only IC entity rooting out weaponization, holding wrongdoers accountable, and increasing transparency for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Democrats are broadly defending ODNI despite their gripes. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told POLITICO ODNI was \u201cprobably overly large\u201d but that Pulte\u2019s \u201ccatastrophic\u201d appointment shouldn\u2019t spur a knee-jerk shuttering of the agency.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">He highlighted the National Counterterrrorism Center \u2014 which is housed at the ODNI \u2014 as an example of what not to cut. \u201cWe are talking about the safety of the American people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) similarly said questions about whether ODNI had \u201cgrown too large\u201d were legitimate but added, \u201cbefore Congress starts dismantling structures that were created to address failures identified after 9\/11, we ought to have a serious, fact-based discussion about what problem we&#8217;re trying to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Other Senate Intel Dems offered a forceful defense of the agency. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) argued Trump appointed Pulte \u201cto fire professional staff who disagree with his mission of politicizing intelligence and weaponizing surveillance against his critics.\u201d Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said \u201cODNI is vital to keeping our country safe from threats at home and abroad.\u201d A spokesperson for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said eliminating ODNI was \u201cunserious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">The White House and CIA didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"plain-text-block\" class=\"font-text text-[length:var(--dimension-typescale-body-l)] text-[var(--color-text-primary)] leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\">Larry Pfeiffer, who was among the first employees of ODNI, told POLITICO that the agency faced headwinds from its inception. He said some CIA staff saw it as taking away from their authority, and \u201chave never given up that fight even 20 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An ODNI official, granted anonymity to share details of internal office dynamics, said Gabbard herself was not opposed to seeing the office she headed vanish. \u201cSince day one, DNI Gabbard said she&#8217;d be willing to be the last Director of National Intelligence if that&#8217;s what was needed,\u201d the official said. A spokesperson for House Intelligence&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/56\/a7\/c02568ad405eb2ff286e8f13bcea\/trump-national-intelligence-11226.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}