Trump Intel Director Pick Tulsi Gabbard Faces Uphill Battle

Juliegrace Brufke
·3-min read
Tulsi Gabbard, Susan Collins split
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Support for President Donald Trump’s controversial choice to coordinate all U.S. intelligence gathering appears to be on shaky ground.

Sen. Susan Collins, for one, is signaling reservations about backing Tulsi Gabbard to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Collins indicated she plans to grill Gabbard this week when she appears for a confirmation hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“There are several questions I want to follow up on in the hearing,” Collins told The Hill, noting that she wants to “hear her unpracticed responses.”

Gabbard, who will need the support of every single Republican on the Intelligence Committee, is far from a shoo-in ahead of Thursday, when she she’ll face the committee in open and closed-door sessions.

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“I think it remains to be seen,” said Sen. John Cornyn, another Intelligence Committee member, said when asked if Gabbard, who has made hundreds of thousands of dollars off her pivot to MAGA, can prevail. “I think the jury’s still out.”

Collins pointed to Gabbard’s past criticism of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows U.S. intelligence officials to conduct warrantless surveillance on both foreign targets overseas and Americans. The Maine Republican said she wants to know where Gabbard stands now.

“There are a lot of obvious issues,” Collins said. “Her answers to the written questions were very hedged on it. I know there’s been a lot of reporting that she’s changed her position. That’s not how I read her answers. I read them as, ‘I’ll take a look at the reforms and see if they meet my concerns.’”

Trump’s Senate allies, meanwhile, who want to score a win for the president, are pushing for the Senate Intelligence Committee to take the unusual step of putting Gabbard’s confirmation to a public vote, according to Politico.

The White House over the weekend warned rebel senators there will be “consequences” for bucking the president.

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GOP lawmakers have also voiced concerns about Gabbard’s past relationship with fallen Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whom she visited in 2017 when she was a Democrat representing Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district in the House. Her past statements echoing Russian talking points are also a bone of contention.

Collins is one of three Republicans who voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination on the floor on Friday, leading Vice President JD Vance to cast a dramatic tie-breaking vote to win confirmation.

Collins stands to play a leading role in hindering other controversial nominees.

Proponents of Gabbard point to her military service as they make the case for the one-time presidential candidate and former Hawaii lawmaker.

“Tulsi Gabbard is a combat veteran with 20 years of military service defending our country,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said in a statement. “She is a fearless leader who will restore the American people’s trust in the intelligence community with dignity and honor. She asks the hard questions and understands the important mission we have to protect our country.”

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