Associated Press
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence after Republicans who had initially questioned her experience and judgment fell in line behind her nomination.
Gabbard was an unconventional pick to oversee and coordinate the country’s 18 different intelligence agencies, given her past comments sympathetic to Russia, a meeting she held with now-deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad and her previous support for government leaker Edward Snowden.
Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, was confirmed by a 52-48 vote, with Democrats opposed in the sharply divided Senate where Republicans hold a slim majority. The only “no’ vote from a Republican came from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
She will take over the top intelligence post as Trump works to reshape vast portions of the federal government. Intelligence agencies including the CIA have issued voluntary resignation offers to staffers, while cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to sensitive government databases containing information about intelligence operations.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created to address intelligence failures exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001. Republicans have increasingly criticized the office, saying it has grown too large and politicized. Trump himself has long viewed the nation’s intelligence services with suspicion.
GOP Senators who had expressed concerns about Gabbard’s stance on Snowden, Syria and Russia said they were won over by her promise to refocus on the office’s core missions: coordinating federal intelligence work and serving as the president’s chief intelligence adviser.
Democrats noted that Gabbard had no experience working for an intelligence agency and said her past stances on Russia, Syria and Snowden made her a poor choice for the job. They also questioned whether she would stand up to Trump if necessary and could maintain vital intelligence sharing with American allies.
“It is an insult to people who have dedicated their lives and put themselves in harm’s way to have her confirmed into this position,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst, about members of America’s intelligence service.
Until GOP support fell into place, it was unclear whether Gabbard’s nomination would succeed. Given the 53-47 split in the Senate, Gabbard needed virtually all Republicans to vote “yes.”
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base has pressured senators to support Trump’s nominees, and Musk, the President’s ally, took to social media recently to brand U.S. Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, as a “deep-state puppet.” Young had raised concerns about Gabbard but announced his support after speaking with Musk. The post was deleted after they spoke, and Musk later called Young an ally.
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 and has never run a government agency or department.
Gabbard’s past praise of Snowden drew particularly harsh questions during her confirmation hearing. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about U.S. surveillance programs.
Gabbard said that while Snowden disclosed important facts about such programs that she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. “Edward Snowden broke the law,” she said.
Gabbard’s 2017 visit with Assad was another flashpoint. He 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 there were more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used such weapons.
Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.
“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions,” Gabbard said.
She also has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past, she opposed a key U.S. surveillance program known as Section 702, which allows authorities to collect the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
11 comments
PeterH
February 12, 2025 at 12:36 pm
THE STAGE IS SET
Yet another unqualified agency head. Like Hitler, Trump has picked weak malleable obedient puppets to destroy our democracy. Next up will be some fabricated or real domestic crisis so he can declare martial law.
U.R. Hoping
February 12, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Trump wins again.
PeterH
February 12, 2025 at 2:10 pm
……and America loses!
SuzyQ
February 12, 2025 at 9:34 pm
You’ve not grown tired of your bizarrely incessant Hitler references. Do you have a subconscious attraction to the Führer, or is it something more in line with your authoritarian instincts? For the rest of us, they have grown trite. Try mixing it up with Mussolini or your youthful heroes, such as Mao, Stalin or Fidel Castro. You could occasionally use a former U.S. president who was a Democrat who, via executive fiat, confiscated
the private property of Japanese Americans without due process, and incarcerated, without trial, Japanese-American men, women and children in concentration camps.
Michael K
February 13, 2025 at 3:07 pm
I’d like to see you twist yourself in a pretzel explaining the total purge of the Kennedy Center by an insecure petty tyrant who never set foot in the place – filling it with his cronies who know nothing and destroying decades of bipartisan cooperation. Exactly the sort of thing that happened in Germany at the beginning of fascism. More North Korean than USA. How about promoting avowed white supremacists whose only credential is fealty to Dear Leader, and a woefully ignorant and incompetent science denier to head health and human services? (It’s only human lives at stake). True, he’s more “Hair Furor” than “Der Fuhrer” at this point, but only by a smidge.
SuzyQ
February 13, 2025 at 11:17 pm
Fascism started in Italy by Italy’s most prominent socialist, who had been the editor-in-chief of “the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party”. National socialism took root in Germany in the 1930s. Your analogy of the Kennedy Center with counterhistorical narratives is laughable.
Michael K
February 16, 2025 at 6:01 pm
Hitler declared art he did not like “degenerate” and banned – and burned – books. Tell me how purging knowledgeable professionals from the Kennedy Center and filling it with political hacks and loyalists makes America great?
Peachy
February 14, 2025 at 7:57 am
Are you going to tell me that Mayorkas, Buttabug, and Granholm were qualified? How about Kamala? Was she the best and brightest of the Democrats available? Hilarious once again my phony independent.
SuzyQ
February 12, 2025 at 9:37 pm
Mitch McConnell and Senate Democrats perfect together … again. I can’t wait to see Dr. Rand Paul, MD, become the senior senator from Kentucky.
SuzyQ
February 13, 2025 at 11:06 pm
Fascism started in Italy by Italy’s most prominent socialist, who had been the editor-in-chief of “the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party”. National socialism took root in Germany in the 1930s. Your analogy of the Kennedy Center with counterhistorical narratives is laughable.
KathrynA
February 15, 2025 at 9:05 am
Read up on Fascism and dictatorships as we are fast approaching it as Americans are losing all rights and good and great safety nets are being abolished by one making millions and perhaps, billions from the government himself. We could save a lot of money, if we just stopped subsidizing Elon Musk–unelected president of the United States and far right, white supremacist.
Look at Vance lecturing the EU, who are doing much better at keeping democratic values and supporting Ukraine than we. Look at Vance visiting a far right, perhaps, Neo-Nazi group yesterday and you say, we shouldn’t worry! Look to history, my friend and do what we can to combat this insanity.
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