The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday voted 9-8 to back President Donald Trump’s pick for director of intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, clearing an important hurdle for her nomination.
The committee’s action opens the way for the full Senate to decide if Gabbard should be confirmed as the country’s top-ranking intelligence official.
At her confirmation hearing last week, Gabbard had faced pointed questions from some Republicans about her stances on Edward Snowden and the controversial surveillance program he helped to expose. The questioning fueled speculation about whether Gabbard would win the backing of the committee, where Republicans have a 9-8 majority.
Gabbard had previously called for Snowden to be pardoned but reversed herself at the hearing, saying she would not seek a pardon or clemency for the former NSA contractor accused of espionage. She also softened her position on the government’s surveillance authorities under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying she viewed them as an important tool.
Before the committee vote, which came in a closed-door session, two Republican senators on the panel who had been seen as potential “no” votes made it clear that they would back Gabbard.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on Monday that Gabbard had addressed her concerns about Snowden and that she would vote for her. On Tuesday, hours before the vote, Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said he would be voting for Gabbard after she provided “commitments that will advance our national security.”
Snowden was a contractor for the National Security Agency in 2013 when he leaked a ream of secret information exposing details of America’s global surveillance operations. Snowden, who fled the country and resettled in Russia, has been indicted for espionage.
Gabbard, a former congresswoman from Hawaii who once ran for the Democratic presidential nomination before leaving the party and backing Trump, had sidestepped specific questions at her confirmation hearing from Republican lawmakers about her views on the section 702 surveillance program.
When the full Senate takes up her confirmation, Gabbard could afford to lose up to three Republican votes, assuming no Democrats vote for her. It’s unclear if there are four Republicans prepared to vote against her nomination, but the committee vote has been viewed as the biggest obstacle for her.
As director of national intelligence, a position created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Gabbard would oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a budget of about $100 billion and serve as the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters.
As a presidential candidate, a member of Congress and a commentator supporting Trump’s campaign, Gabbard has been accused of echoing propaganda spread by Russia and the former Assad regime in Syria, including questioning U.S. intelligence assessments that the Syrian government had carried out multiple chemical weapons attacks on its own people.
At the hearing last week, Gabbard rejected criticism that she has sided with U.S. adversaries and said it was outrageous to question her loyalty to the United States given her career in the Army and in politics.
She maintains she is coming under attack for questioning Washington’s national security establishment and opposing U.S. military “regime change” interventions, including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
At the hearing last week, Gabbard she was not “Putin’s puppet” or “Assad’s puppet,” or anyone else’s.
“The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq with a medical unit, has long criticized American foreign policy as imperial and heavy-handed. She also has sharply criticized Trump in the past over his approach to the Middle East during his first presidential term, portraying him as dangerous. But at her confirmation hearing last week, Gabbard said she had changed her mind and been proven wrong.