WASHINGTON (AP) — Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump's pick to be director of national intelligence, will face tough questions from lawmakers Thursday over past comments about Russia and a 2017 visit with Syria's now-deposed leader.
The back-and-forth during Gabbard's confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee could reveal whether she has successfully assuaged concerns from lawmakers of both parties — or whether worries about her experience and background will sink her nomination to oversee 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, 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, however, and has never run a government agency or department.
It's Gabbard's comments, however, that have posed the biggest challenge to her confirmation. Gabbard has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a corrupt autocrat.
She's been accused of spreading Russian disinformation by Republican lawmakers and has even won praise in Russian state-controlled media.
A 2017 visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad is another point of contention. Assad was recently deposed as his country's leader 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 more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used chemical weapons.
As a lawmaker, Gabbard sponsored legislation that would have repealed a key surveillance program known as Section 702, which allows authorities to collect the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.
Gabbard said the program could be violating the rights of Americans whose communications are swept up inadvertently, but national security officials say the program has saved lives.
She now says she supports the program, noting new safeguards designed to protect Americans' privacy.
While lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about Gabbard's nomination, Republicans have increasingly come to support her. Given thin Republican margins in the Senate, she will need almost all GOP senators to vote yes in order to win confirmation.
Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, supports Gabbard's nomination and said at the start of Thursday's hearing that he hopes she can rein in an office that he said has grown too large and bureaucratic.
Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is now larger, in terms of staffing, than any of the agencies it was created to oversee.
“Look at where conventional thinking has got us. Maybe Washington could use a little more unconventional thinking,” Cotton said. “Ms. Gabbard, I submit that, if confirmed, the measure of your success will largely depend on whether you can return the ODNI to its original size, scope, and mission."
Democrats, however, quickly went after Gabbard at the start of Thursday's hearing, questioning whether she had the experience necessary to do the job. Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, noted that the law creating the position requires the occupant to have “extensive national security expertise.”
“Most folks probably don't understand the importance of this position,” Warner told Gabbard at the start of Thursday's hearing. “I continue to have significant concerns about your judgement and your qualifications.”
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