Pelosi asks Ryan to pull NSA surveillance bill after Trump tweets

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has called on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to pull a bill from the floor reauthorizing the government’s surveillance powers after a pair of contradicting tweets from President Trump Thursday morning about his support for the legislation, a Democratic aide said. 

The House is headed for a close vote Thursday over whether to reauthorize the National Security Agency’s (NSA) controversial warrantless surveillance program, which has been criticized for the ease with which prosecutors can obtain warrants from a surveillance court to spy on Americans. 

House GOP leadership is still pushing ahead with the measure on Thursday, with Ryan making a case for the bill on the House floor.

The White House has called on the program to be reauthorized, but the president lashed out at the program early Thursday. Trump’s allies have alleged that the FBI used a salacious opposition research memo detailing allegations of Trump-Russia collusion to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on his campaign and transition team.

“House votes on controversial FISA ACT [sic] 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?” Trump tweeted.

But following backlash and confusion from the tweet, Trump followed up by saying that the program must be renewed as a means of keeping tabs on “foreign bad guys.”

“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!”’ Trump tweeted.