Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to be President Donald Trump director of national intelligence cleared a key Senate committee Tuesday despite concerns raised about her past comments sympathetic to Russia and a meeting with Syria’s now-deposed leader.
A former Democratic congresswoman, Gabbard is one of Trump’s most divisive nominees, with lawmakers of both parties also pointing to her past support for government leaker Edward Snowden. But the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced her nomination in a closed-door 9-8 vote, and it now heads to the full Senate for consideration. A vote has not been scheduled yet.
Following a contentious confirmation hearing last week, where some Republican senators questioned Gabbard harshly, GOP support for her fell into place following a pressure campaign over the weekend unleashed by Trump supporters and allies, including Elon Musk.
Until three GOP members seen as swing votes announced their support, it wasn’t clear her nomination would advance beyond the Intelligence Committee. Given strong Democratic opposition and thin Republican margins, Gabbard will need almost all GOP senators to vote yes to win confirmation to the top intelligence job.
Given the sensitive nature of the work it does, the Intelligence Committee regularly meets privately, and Tuesday’s vote on Gabbard was held during such a session. While the votes of members of the committee were not released, support for Gabbard has fallen along party lines, with no Democrats expressing support.
Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for president in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience, however, and has never run a government agency or department.
Gabbard's past praise of Snowden drew particularly harsh questions during the nomination hearing. The former National Security Agency contractor fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about surveillance programs.
Gabbard said that while Snowden revealed important facts about surveillance programs she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. “Edward Snowden broke the law,” she said.
A 2017 visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad is another flash point. Assad was recently deposed following a brutal civil war in which he was accused of using chemical weapons. Following her visit, Gabbard faced criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator and then more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used chemical weapons.
Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.
She has also repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and in the past opposed a key U.S. surveillance program.
In the latest instance of the “Make America Great Again” base pressuring senators to support Trump's nominees, Musk blasted Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana as a “deep-state puppet” in a now-deleted social media post before the two men spoke and Musk later called him an ally.
Young, whose critical questioning of Gabbard had prompted speculation he might oppose her, confirmed Tuesday he would back Gabbard. Young said his tough questions for Gabbard were just part of the process.
“I have done what the framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security,” he wrote in statement announcing his support for Gabbard.
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23 Comments
JJE
Confirm her now. The attacks on her by dems as a "Russian asset" are nasty and abhorrent.
Everyone who has ever met her likes here: the only people who don't like her are some dems, which says more about them than it does her. The are continuing the DNC/Clinton vendetta with their nasty smears and making themselves look foolish in the process.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Whatever they are they are plausible. The intelligence community should not mess around with even the whiff of russia or China in the air.
FizzBit
It's very clear by now that Trump has thrown that Rep/Dem corrupt establishment Ring into the fires of Orodruin/Mt Doom. We're gonna see a lot of winning and drying in the next year or so, so be it.
Stops the wars and proxy wars!
bass4funk
I knew it. Great woman, can’t wait.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yes, you would like a fellow Putinist.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Hadn't you heard? Trump is open to making deals to get Ukraine the weapons it needs.
bass4funk
Not surprised liberals still buy into that urban legend political myth
TaiwanIsNotChina
Not an urban legend when you've shown you think there can be good relations with Putin.
Wick's pencil
Nothing wrong with good relations with Putin. The fact that so many people think there is something wrong with it illustrates how dishonest the US intelligence is.
I'veSeenFootage
Trump supporters consider having absolutely no experience an actual asset, so no problem there.
Great news for Vladimir Putin! He will soon have another asset in the White House.
bass4funk
Urban legend at best, she convinced Susan Collins (not an easy thing to do) that she’s not what the left and some on the right have been saying about her. She’s without a doubt an unrepentant patriot, I’m just happy she’ll be confirmed now.
TaiwanIsNotChina
We were told we should listen to every word of Fuhrer Putin. The anti-Americanism is obvious.
lincolnman
Trump's pick? More like his Master Putin's pick...
Put her in-charge and ALL our secrets go to Russia...not just the ones stolen and stored next to the toilet at MAL...
JJE
Fortunately, this vote makes it very likely that she will be confirmed. As an added bonus, also makes it even less credible that warmongers can continue smearing any dissenting voice as a "Russian asset".
isabelle
It's a little difficult to have good relations with an accused war criminal who unilaterally started the largest war in Europe since WWII, and whose invading hordes have been murdering, raping, torturing, obliterating, and child-abducting their way through Ukraine for almost three years.
I'veSeenFootage
Ah yes, it's the people who condemn Putin and Assad who are "warmongers". And Tulsi Gabbard loves peace. She loves it so much she doesn't believe Assad used chemical weapons! Those poor people all died from a simple gas leak.
Bad Haircut
Yup.
This is simply retribution for her daring to defy the DNC years ago by not doing as she was told and instead applying her conscience to her job. No room for that in the Democrats, so they chose to smear her instead. That's why she left the party.
Blacklabel
Another win, even for a lifelong Democrat.
stormcrow
Can she be trusted?
If I was a foreign ally of the U.S., I wouldn’t share any sensitive intelligence with them.
wallace
American allies, including the Brits, will restrict their intelligence sharing.
Blacklabel
Yeah they are now advocating for our allies to withhold critical information for the security of our away from us.
after days of “how can Trump do that to them! They are our allies!”
guess “ally” only goes one way in liberal world.
Raw Beer
Ah yes, it seems the intelligence propaganda machine has been very effective at convincing people that all of that is true...
Hope Tulsi will clean it up.