Tulsi Gabbard, former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump loyalist, will join the Senate Intelligence Committee at 10 a.m. (ET) as she seeks confirmation to become director of national intelligence.
Her nomination is already raising eyebrows over her lack of specific intelligence experience and past foreign policy stances.
While she is a former lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, Gabbard has been vocal in her opposition to U.S. military interventions abroad.
A 2017 meeting with then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – who has been accused of war crimes, including chemical attacks on civilians – has been the focus of frequent attacks on her. In the past Gabbard has pushed back against condemnation of the meeting, arguing that diplomatic engagement is preferable to “counterproductive regime change wars.”
Gabbard’s call for Ukrainian “neutrality” following the Russian invasion in 2022, has also led some to accuse her of “siding” with Moscow, and Hillary Clinton to brand her a “Russian asset.”
Another stance expected to draw fire is her praise of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, which she offered in a 2019 interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Snowden leaked information about Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which intelligence agencies used to authorize mass electronic surveillance.
Gabbard became a vocal critic of Section 702 as an “overreach” that impinged upon citizens’ civil liberties and led a call to repeal it, in alignment with many progressive Democrats and libertarians at the time.
Though she has since softened her stance, pledging
Watch above via PBS News.