A tweet from President Donald Trump Thursday morning sowed confusion about the White House’s position on a key intelligence program and imperiled the already shaky efforts to renew the federal government’s ability to monitor the communications of terrorists and other threats.
The tweet came just 10 hours after the White House issued a statement indicating its support of the renewal efforts and made clear its opposition to an amendment with growing support that would block renewal, raising the prospect that the president simply didn’t understand what the position of his White House had been. Top Trump national security officials, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Adviser Tom Bossert, scrambled to clarify the White House position in calls to Capitol Hill shortly after the president’s Thursday morning tweet.
“House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
The tweet undercut an effort by some House Republicans hawks to ensure passage of a FISA Act renewal that Republican leadership had long assumed would pass without much of a fight. By late afternoon Wednesday, however, it was clear that there was a chance that the measure would fail, due in part to confusion about among rank-and-file Republicans about the role of its provisions in the alleged monitoring of the Trump campaign by Obama administration national security officials, according to three Republican members of Congress who support renewal.
On Wednesday evening, as it became clearer that passage was uncertain, House Republicans urged the White House to make clear its opposition to the alternative to FISA Act renewal. At 9:12 p.m., the White House issued a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders designed to provide this clarity.
But Trump’s tweet Thursday morning plunged the debate into confusion once again. Proponents of renewal privately expressed frustration with the president, both his lack of discipline and his obvious ignorance of his own alleged policy preferences. House Republican leaders called the White House requesting another statement to clarify the president’s tweet.
The FISA Act renewal efforts have the support of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who has raised concerns for months about FISA Act abuse and alleged impropriety related to the “unmasking” of Trump campaign officials by Obama administration and intelligence officials. Nunes had initially sought to include transparency requirements related to unmasking requests in the FISA Act renewal legislation but Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee objected, saying he couldn’t support legislation that included such provisions. Nunes worked with the White House to address his concerns administratively.
Democrats are divided on the FISA Act renewal, with Schiff and Dutch Ruppersberger, former ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, supporting the legislation but most rank-and-file Democrats opposed. One big question has been House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi, according to GOP sources involved in the push for the legislation, had originally promised House Speaker Paul Ryan that she would write a public letter indicating her support, a statement that Republicans believed would bring along more than enough Democrats to offset Republicans skeptical of the renewal. But Pelosi balked and as of Thursday morning has not released a letter. “She reneged,” says one Republican member.
The tweet from the president had House Republican leadership reconsidering its options Thursday morning, at one point including the possibility of pulling the legislation altogether.
UPDATE: Trump responded to pleas from House Republicans and members of his own national security team seeking clarification of this morning’s tweet. Not quite two hours after the first tweet, the president tweeted his support for renewal:
With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
