Tulsi Gabbard cleared an important hurdle to become President Donald Trump’s director of National Intelligence when the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance her nomination to the full Senate floor on Tuesday.
Gabbard’s path to confirmation became clearer Tuesday morning when Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana said they would support her during the crucial vote. At her grilling before the panel last week, both seemed to express skepticism about her positions.
Young, in particular, peppered her with questions about her stance on Edward Snowden’s leaking of information about U.S. surveillance programs. Gabbard refused multiple times to call him a “traitor.” Democrats also questioned Gabbard aggressively about visiting Syria’s now-deposed president Bashar al-Assad.
Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, said that he worried about Gabbard’s views about Assad using chemical weapons in Syria.
“Healthy skepticism is a good thing, but when someone consistently embraces sensational, but poorly supported claims while dismissing the thorough assessments of our intelligence community, it becomes dangerous,” Kelly said in a statement. “That’s why I pressed Congresswoman Gabbard during the hearing about her disputing Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people in Syria, but rather than ease my concerns, she confirmed them.”
But Young, a retired Marine intelligence officer, told The Independent that Gabbard satisfied his questions, and felt confident she would address the “various concerns” he had.
“I had extensive conversations with a number of members of the administration and multiple other stakeholders,” Young said.
“Those assurances were delivered and therefore I was able to support her,” he added.
On Monday evening, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another member of the Intelligence Committee, said she would vote to confirm Gabbard.
“In response to my questions during our discussion in my office and at the open hearing, as well as through her explanation at the closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ms. Gabbard addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden,” Collins said in a statement.
Collins had previous expressed skepticism about Gabbard’s views on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for U.S. intelligence to gather information on non-Americans outside of the United States.
Many Republicans during Gabbard’s hearing seemed to express skepticism at least of Gabbard and her beliefs. But it proved not to be enough of a dealbreaker. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked Gabbard about Gabbard’s views about Section 702 during her hearing and the fact that courts had said it did not violate rights guaranteed under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Nevertheless, Cornyn said that he would vote to confirm Gabbard out of deference to Trump.
“Having won the election decisively, I believe President Trump has earned the right to appoint his own cabinet, absent extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “Therefore, it is my intention to consent to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.”
Gabbard, a former Democrat who later endorsed Trump, criticized the program when she served in Congress.
The unanimous support from Republicans on the committee all but guarantees that Gabbard will be confirmed on the Senate floor. Republicans have 53 seats, and even if more traditional Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and former majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky oppose her, she will still become the next director of National Intelligence.
Sen Thom Tillis told The Independent last week that he would defer to his colleagues on the committee to determine how he would vote.
“It's pretty straightforward. If she gets unanimous support out of committee, I'm supporting her,” Tillis said.
The vote comes the same day that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist who has promoted the debunked link between immunization and autism, received unanimous support from Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee.
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who like Collins had voted to convict Donald Trump for his actions on January 6, announced before the hearing that he would vote to confirm Kennedy.
The vote means that most of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed, which signals a change in fortune after Matt Gaetz had to retract his nomination to be attorney general amid an ongoing House Ethics Committee Investigation.
But Democrats said that they had lingering concerns. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, linked Gabbard’s confirmation with Elon Musk’s unilaterally defunding and targeting various government bodies.
“I'm not voting for any more of these folks until I get answers,” the Virginia Democrat told The Independent. “Anybody really believe that Tulsi Gabbard’s going to stand up to Elon Musk?”
Warner said he worried that Republicans were abdicating their duties, adding that historically the Senate acted in a bipartisan manner to protect national security.
“I think there's enormous pressure,” Warner said, referring to the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. “I don't know who works for DOGE. I don't know if any of them have got clearances.”
The votes for Gabbard and Kennedy likely set up a relatively easy confirmation process for Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, despite Patel’s appearing on a right-wing conspiracy theorist and antisemite’s podcast eight times.
