WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence-designate Tulsi Gabbard survived a key Senate procedural vote on Monday night, taking a massive step toward confirmation later this week.
The Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to end debate on Gabbard’s nomination, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) not voting.
Gabbard, 43, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has been widely regarded as one of President Trump’s cabinet picks least likely to clear the Senate thanks to her past skepticism of the intelligence community.
She faced a combative hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee last month, but managed to clear the panel last week despite tough questioning from members of both parties.
“The intelligence community needs to refocus on its core mission – collecting intelligence and providing unbiased analysis of that information,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in floor remarks ahead of the vote, hailing Gabbard as a “patriot.”
“That’s what Tulsi Gabbard is committed to ensuring if she is confirmed to be DNI,” he added. “I know Tulsi will be fully committed to protecting all Americans during this pivotal moment in American history.”
Gabbard’s critics have harped on her past defense of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, her now-infamous 2017 visit with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and her past opposition to warrantless surveillance of overseas terror suspects under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702.
Most members of the Senate Intelligence Committee view FISA Section 702, which allows the government to monitor non-US citizens living abroad, as paramount to national security.
While a congresswoman, Gabbard had proposed legislation repealing Section 702, claiming that the incidental collection of Americans’ communications amounted to unconstitutional violations of privacy.
Gabbard claimed to have had a change of heart on FISA Section 702 last year, and argued during the confirmation process that Congress has since addressed many of her concerns about the power.
“The national security capability that is provided by Section 702 that enables this foreign surveillance on non-US persons overseas is critical, period,” Gabbard underscored during her hearing before the intelligence committee.
Snowden had publicly urged Gabbard on social media to condemn him in order to help secure her confirmation. Gabbard refused to call Snowden a “traitor” when prompted during her hearing but committed to pursuing leakers and working to prevent another “Snowden-like” leak.
As for Assad, Gabbard claimed that during her meeting with the former Damascus dictator, she pressed him “about his own regime’s actions, the use of chemical weapons, and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people.”
Should she get confirmed later this week, Gabbard would oversee the government’s 18 intelligence agencies.
“For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence has led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security,” she said during her confirmation hearing. “The most obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure of intelligence.
“President Trump’s re-election is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure, end the weaponization/politicization of the [intelligence community], and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.”
