The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday voted to favorably report the nomination of former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.
Gabbard advanced in a 9-8 party-line vote.
“We look forward to her confirmation and working with her to keep America safe,” Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told reporters after announcing the results of the vote, which was held in a closed meeting.
Her nomination has been plagued with concerns about her support for whistleblower Edward Snowden and a 2017 trip to Syria in which she met with then-leader Bashar Assad. She faced bipartisan scrutiny over that record when she went before the committee last week.
Gabbard received good news Monday when Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement that she would back the nominee. Collins had been seen as a potential opponent, in part because she voted against Pete Hegseth, another nominee whose credentials were questioned, for Defense secretary.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., seen as another potential vote against Gabbard, indicated earlier Tuesday he would back her. He told reporters before entering the markup that he “got the reassurances we needed” regarding his concerns about Gabbard’s nomination.
“I’ve done my vetting,” Young said. “I’ve done what I think, as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer, is consistent with national security interests. And there have been a number of members of the intelligence community, current and former, who have validated her qualifications.”
Lawmakers had drilled down during the hearing on Gabbard’s remarks on Snowden, an intelligence contractor who in 2013 exposed details of the National Security Agency’s information-gathering programs. Despite repeated lines of questioning from multiple members of the panel, she refused to call Snowden a traitor.
“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 during the hearing.
While in the House, Gabbard introduced a resolution encouraging the federal government to drop all charges against Snowden. But she told the Senate Intelligence members that she would not back a pardon of Snowden if confirmed. She also said last week that she doesn’t regret her trip to Syria, but she “shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime.”
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard would lead an intelligence office that spans 18 agencies and organizations. She can only afford to lose three Senate Republicans in a floor vote if Democrats are united against her.
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