Jim Jordan tells Fox News Trump just threw GOP victory in doubt: 'It's a standoff'

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan went on Fox News to warn that a key national security law is heading toward expiration Friday — and acknowledged that his own side may not be able to stop it.

FISA Section 702, which Jordan described as responsible for more than 50 percent of the nation's most sensitive intelligence, is set to expire this week. Democrats are blocking reauthorization unless President Trump removes Bill Pulte from his role as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Jordan admitted to host Maria Bartiromo the two sides are at an impasse.

"It's a standoff," Jordan said.

Pulte, who simultaneously serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was installed as Acting DNI by Trump over Democratic objections that he lacks an intelligence background. Democrats have made his removal a condition for their votes on reauthorization.

Jordan framed the Democratic position as political obstruction. "They're using this as leverage," he said. "This is typical Washington games. They want to play politics with national security."

He defended Pulte as someone Trump trusts "to get the intelligence community back on track and focused on real threats, not going after conservatives or political opponents."

But with the deadline days away and no deal in sight, Jordan's own description of the situation — a standoff — raises the possibility that a surveillance program Republicans have repeatedly called indispensable to national security could lapse because of a personnel dispute of the administration's own making.