Transcript of Primary Results, DOJ Scraps Anti-Weaponization Fund, Trump Appoints Acting DNI

Voters in 6 states picked their midterm candidates.

Iowa Republicans rejected President Trump's choice for governor, and Democrats chose a more moderate candidate to try and flip the state's Senate seat. We run down the results from Iowa and across the country.

I'm Leila Fawadid. That's Aimee Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch told Congress the Justice Department is scrapping President Trump's anti-weaponization fund. We are not moving forward with the fund.

Not moving forward ever?

Correct.

Oh. But the part of the deal that shields Trump and his family from IRS investigations still stands.

And President Trump named a new acting director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard. Bill Pulte spent his career in housing with no intelligence experience. Even some Republicans are skeptical. Stay with us, we've got the news you need to start your day.

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Another round of primaries offer a glimpse into the midterm landscape.

Last night, President Trump's pick for governor of Iowa lost his race. The loss is a blow for Trump, who has seen almost all of his chosen candidates this cycle sail to victory or advance to runoff elections. Democratic voters chose candidates they hope give them the best shot at flipping congressional seats in November.

NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler has been watching all the primaries for us. He's here with some pretty important takeaways. So let's start with Iowa, a state with a number of competitive races in November. What do the matchups look like?

Well, Democrats chose their nominee for U.S. Senate. Republicans chose their pick for governor. 3 of the 4 House races are indeed viewed as the few competitive races in November. For Senate, the nominee is State House Rep. Josh Turek. He's a Paralympian who holds a seat that voted for Trump and argued that his background and campaign strategy is the best way for Democrats to win in a red state. Primary voters agreed, picking him over a progressive state senator by a 2-to-1 margin. Turek now faces Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who had a nominal challenger in her race.

What about Iowa's governor's race?

Rob Sand is the Democratic nominee. He ran unopposed and is the only statewide Democratic elected official. While Trump-endorsed Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra, ultimately the Associated Press called the race for businessman Zach Lane in a narrow victory that also allowed Iowa Republican voters to signal displeasure with the president. That race starts out as a true toss-up for November. All right.

Now, Montana, another red state where Democrats are hopeful they could capitalize on Trump's unpopularity.

Montana's 1st District is an open race where Democrats see a shot in this particular political environment where Trump has lost a little bit of support from Republicans and a lot of it from basically everyone else. The Senate race is another interesting one there. That's because of a candidate who wasn't on the ballot yesterday. Independent Seth Bodnar outraised the Trump-backed U.S. attorney and all of the Democratic candidates in another race worth watching. All right, so I'm in California.

It takes a little while to count all the votes here thanks to the state's mail-in voting laws. Anything though that we do know based on what's been tallied so far?

Well, as you also know, in California the top 2 advance to the general election regardless of party. So for the governor's race, we do know that almost all of the 60 candidates on the ballot won't make that short list. Sorry, Barack D. Obama Shaw and Living for God and Country DeMott. There is a 3-person race for the top 2 spots: billionaire Tom Steyer, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a Republican backed by Trump. This is important because it's possible that the 2 Democrats advance, leaving Republicans without a top-of-the-ticket champion to help them with some House races affected by redistricting.

The past few weeks, we've been tracking the incumbents in both parties who have lost their primary. Anyone else to add to the list?

Well, there are a number of older California incumbent Democrats who face challengers from younger candidates who want generational change. So far, those older incumbents are all in first place, but November is a long way away. After California redrew their lines late last year, several California Republicans are finding themselves in much more difficult races. Some of them retired. One became an independent. And then there's Ken Calvert and Young Kim. These two Republican lawmakers were drawn together in the nationwide redistricting war and will face off in November. And in the South Dakota Republican governor's primary, the front-runner heading into a runoff there is a political outsider who finished ahead of the incumbent governor, the state's sole House representative and speaker of the state House in a tight four-way race.

All right. That is NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thanks. Thank you. The Trump administration's plan for a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim to have been targets of politicized investigations are over.

Yeah, that's what Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch told Congress on Tuesday. For almost 2 weeks, the Trump administration has faced political blowback over the idea that it would hand out money from what it called an anti-weaponization fund.

NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas was watching that congressional testimony. Ryan, what was this hearing about, and what did Blanche have to say?

So Blanche was on the Hill for a hearing before House lawmakers that was focused on the Justice Department's budget, but there's been a lot of chatter about this nearly $1.8 billion fund that the department has created to compensate people who believe they were victims of politicized prosecutions. A day earlier, the Justice Department had put out a statement that it would abide by a court ruling putting the fund on hold until at least June 12th while a the lawsuit challenging it plays out in court. And then at yesterday's hearing, Blanche was asked what the department's plans were after that date. He said the department is dropping its plans for the funds, full stop. And Blanche then added this in an exchange with New York Democrat Grace Meng: The reasons for the fund, I think, were— remain as important as they were before, but, um, we are not moving forward with the fund.

Not moving forward ever?

Correct. Oh. No, there's no more fund then.

Now, Blanche was asked to put that into writing, and he said in essence he sees no reason to do that, which was cause for a bit of skepticism.

Okay, so Blanche says no more fund ever, but as legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to do, Ryan, let us know the rest of the story.

Right, well, remember, this fund was created as part of a settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to end Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns Trump wouldn't get any money from the fund, but as part of the deal, the IRS is barred from pursuing any claims, any probes, any audits against Trump, his family, or his companies over past tax issues. And Blanche told lawmakers that part of the settlement still stands. It is still in effect. So in other words, Trump, his family, his businesses are still shielded from IRS investigations of past tax returns.

All right, so how did that go down with, uh, members in Congress?

Well, look, from the beginning, Democrats have railed against this whole settlement. They say this was a slush fund for the president to dole out taxpayer money to his supporters and allies at a time, Democrats note, when a lot of Americans are really struggling to make ends meet. And a lot of Democrats say Blanchett's announcement just falls short. Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, said that promises are not enough here. She says this fund needs to be blocked in law. And she also noted that under this arrangement, Trump, as I just said, remains shielded from IRS scrutiny. What about Republicans? Well, yeah, Republicans are really the bigger question here. This fund has been a rare issue where we have seen a lot of members of the GOP, particularly in the Senate, publicly come out against President Trump. Many of the Republicans dislike the possibility that Capitol rioters who attacked police on January 6th, 2021 could have received payouts. That Republican pushback has held up some of the administration's legislative priorities, including most notably funding for immigration enforcement. Now, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said yesterday he hoped that Blanchett's statement would ease Republican concerns that have held up immigration funding and give the party the votes that it needs to ultimately push that funding bill over the line.

All right, that's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks a lot. Thank you. There is a new director of national intelligence.

President Trump announced Tuesday that the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, will take on the intelligence role too, as acting director. Pulte will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who is stepping down at the end of the month. The choice has already drawn sharp criticism for Pulte's lack of experience.

NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to explain what's going on. So, uh, Danielle, who is Bill Pulte?

Well, like Leila said, he is the head of the FHFA, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they guarantee home loans in the U.S. Now, Pulte's career prior to that was heavily housing-related. His family owns a large home-building company, and he ran a firm that invested in building products. But his biographies on the FAA site and elsewhere do not show any intelligence experience.

So Danielle, maybe it's just me, um, but to be Director of National Intelligence, shouldn't you have national intelligence experience, or at least intelligence experience?

Well, you sure might think so, and that's a legal matter. In fact, the post-9/11 law that set up the position of DNI says all nominees must have, quote, extensive national security experience. But then Pulte isn't a nominee. Trump is naming him an acting director, so he won't have to go through a Senate confirmation. And remember, this really is a key position right now, with the U.S. engaged with foreign threats around the world during a war with Iran. Now, even some Senate Republicans are skeptical of Palti, by the way. Here's Texas Republican John Cornyn when he was asked about the appointment: I don't see any qualif—

any evidence of any qualifications for that job.

So he was pretty blunt. Meanwhile, when GOP Senate leaders John Thune and Tom Cotton were asked about Palti's qualifications, they just didn't have much to say yesterday. Now, in describing those qualifications in his— in a social media post, Trump was vague. He said Pulte has, quote, "deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America." But Pulte does have one attribute Trump likes, which is that he's used his position to legally pursue Trump's perceived enemies. Okay, in what way? Well, as head of a housing agency, he has accused multiple people of mortgage fraud. There's, for example, New York Attorney General Letitia James. The administration has repeatedly attempted to prosecute her. She maintains she has done nothing wrong. Now, James, you remember, prosecuted Trump and the Trump Organization for civil fraud. Similarly, the administration accused Democratic Senator of California Adam Schiff of this kind of fraud. Schiff has also denied wrongdoing. Schiff helped lead the Democratic effort to impeach Trump in 2019 and 2020. And the administration has also pursued Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook for fraud. Trump cited that accusation in attempting to fire her. Now, Cook says she did nothing wrong, and the Supreme Court in January heard arguments in his attempt to fire her.

But that, that willingness to go after people that Trump does not like for any number of reasons, that's not new in this administration, right?

Exactly. Trump even explicitly in a social media post last fall wrote a message addressed to then Attorney General Pam Bondi saying he wanted her to take action against James Schiff, and former FBI Director James Comey. And yeah, there are others happy to go after his enemies. FBI Director Kash Patel, even before he took the helm, had talked about doing so. We don't know how long Pulte will be acting director, but intelligence is an entirely different avenue from housing for taking aim at opponents.

That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot. Thank you. And that's Up First for Wednesday, June 3rd. I'm Emilio Martinez. And I'm Leila Fawad.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratt, Anna Yukhaninov, Rebecca Metzler, Mohamed ElBardeesy, and Lindsay Totty. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin. Join us again tomorrow.