Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, sought on Thursday to dispel senators’ doubts about her national security record, but was still unwilling to call whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor or disavow her 2017 meetings with Syrian ruler Bashar Assad.
In testimony to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Gabbard sought to paint a picture of a politicized intelligence community, citing “our invasion of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure of intelligence” and what she called “politicized” efforts to undermine Trump.
Trump’s election was “a clear mandate to break this cycle of failure,” she said, vowing to focus on the role’s “essential mission.”
Gabbard, a former House Democrat who represented a Hawaii district from 2013 to 2021, faced intense bipartisan scrutiny over her support for Snowden, an intelligence contractor who in 2013 exposed details of the National Security Agency’s information-gathering programs.
Gabbard said Snowden broke the law and had legal avenues for whistleblowing, but wouldn’t agree to lawmakers’ calling him a traitor.
“The concern among so many here, and I think what a lot of the folks in the intelligence community that you’d have the responsibility to oversight is, they want to hear that you also believe the same thing,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. “Not just that he broke the law. But that he’s a traitor.”
Gabbard, if confirmed, would lead an intelligence office that spans 18 agencies and organizations.
“The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government that led to serious reforms that Congress undertook,” she said of Snowden.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked her if she would support a pardon or clemency for Snowden. Gabbard said she didn’t intend to.
Gabbard can only afford to lose three Senate Republicans if all the Democrats vote against her. Collins voted against confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and hasn’t said whether she’ll support Gabbard. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, another Senate Intelligence member, has also not indicated how he’ll vote.
Gabbard appeared to appeal to Collins directly, noting the Maine senator’s role in establishing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“The need for the ODNI and strong leadership still exists today,” she said. “If confirmed, I’ll bring my experience and fresh eyes to leading the intelligence community.”
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, noting that Snowden spent some time in Hawaii before fleeing to Hong Kong, asked Gabbard if she had ever connected with him. She said she hadn’t.
Snowden is now in exile in Russia.
After initially testifying in public, Gabbard went into a closed hearing with the panel.
Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was more friendly than other lawmakers..
“Maybe Washington could use a little more unconventional thinking,” he said.
Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said Gabbard’s track record “raises serious questions” and would impact the trust that allies have in the U.S. intelligence community. If that trust is broken, he said, the United States would be “less safe.”
“There’s no legal requirement that allies share intelligence,” Warner said. “It’s all predicated on trust, trust that our allies will protect each other’s secrets. It appears to me, you have repeatedly excused our adversaries’ worst actions, instead often blaming them on the United States and those very allies.”
Section 702
Lawmakers from both parties zeroed in on her views on the use of Section 702 of a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law allows the federal government to collect non-U.S. citizens’ communications outside the country without a warrant and has at times ensnared U.S. citizens.
Gabbard said she favors requiring warrants, though she recognized that extenuating circumstances can arise. But she also said such a requirement was “ultimately going to be a policy decision that all of you will make.”
Congress overhauled the law in 2024.
Gabbard said congressional changes have changed her stance since she was in the House. In 2020, she and a GOP lawmaker proposed legislation that would repeal Section 702. When asked, she didn’t cite specifics of those provisions that motivated her change of opinion.
Gabbard addressed suggestions that she supported U.S. adversaries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Assad. She also said she has never knowingly met with any members, leaders or affiliates of Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon.
She said her critics are “not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.” She said she has “no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator.”
Moammar Gadhafi, the one-time ruler of Libya, was killed after being captured by rebels in 2011, before Gabbard began her congressional career.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., noting there’s “not a great deal in the public record” about Gabbard’s 2017 meetings with Assad, asked whether she pushed him on the use of chemical weapons against his own people.
“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions, the use of chemical weapons and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people,” Gabbard said, adding that she didn’t extract any concessions in the conversation.
Gabbard said she doesn’t regret her trip to Syria, but also that she “shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime.” She called the new leader of Syria an “Islamist extremist” and decried the transitional government.
Assad was overthrown last year and is in exile in Russia. The new Syrian leader comes from a group that the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization, although the U.S. more recently withdrew the bounty on his head.
Gabbard blamed Putin for the war in Ukraine, a contrast from previous comments faulting NATO for Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“I want to make certain that in no way does Russia get a pass in either your mind or your heart, or in any policy recommendation you would make or not make,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said.
“Senator, I’m offended by the question, because my sole focus, commitment and responsibility is about our own nation, our own security and the interests of the American people,” Gabbard replied.
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