Politics and views in the United States

President Trump taps housing official Bill Pulte to lead intelligence agencies, but gets pushback. Californians vote in their primary and critics charge that the new federal Moms.gov site helps abortion opponents.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

A guy who can file such baseless, political, and outrageous charges against political office holders he doesn't like can't be entrusted to protect our national security.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling President Donald Trump's appointment of federal housing finance official Bill Pulte to lead the nation's intelligence agency's, quote, a new low.

Importantly, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune is also signaling opposition, saying, quote, we don't need a weaponized director of national intelligence.

Pulte is a close Trump ally who passed on mortgage information used to attack the president's critics but has little intelligence experience.

The Justice Department and White House say they're abandoning a widely damned plan for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.

They have not backed off on a deal to protect Trump and his family from tax investigations, and Senate Democrats say they still intend to force votes on the issue.

The top two candidates for California governor will advance after today's primary.

A few weeks ago, it seemed possible both could be Republicans, but now it could be two Democrats.

Biden Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer seem to be leading in a close and expensive race.

Steyer has spent more than $200 million of his own dollars, but is attacking Becerra for accepting donations from Meta and Chevron.

I know this race has seemed complicated, but it's actually now very, very simple.

It comes down to this.

Do you want a California that works for corporations or a California that works for Californians?

Fox commentator and Republican Steve Hilton could also make the top two.

Counting mail-in ballots could take days or weeks, but closely watched results from Senate primaries in Iowa and Montana are likely much sooner.

North Dakota election officials say people planning to vote absentee should move quickly to meet new deadlines.

The state took action to mirror Trump's executive order, saying absentee ballots sent by mail can't be counted after Election Day, even with an earlier postmark.

Mercer County Auditor Carmen Reid warns that means there is no longer any grace period.

The postmark doesn't matter.

Every ballot that's going to be counted has to be to us Election Day at 7 p.m.

Critics say a new government-run website for pregnant women is a data collection and recruitment tool for abortion opponents.

The moms.gov site redirects users to a service run by Heartbeat International, the nation's largest crisis pregnancy center network.

Lori Venninger with the Indivisible The Trump administration says the offers help for women facing unexpected or difficult pregnancies.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.