Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, January 31, 2025 Real World News
Following Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News: “I have to tell you, I’m worried by what I hear from some of my Republican colleagues. I’m worried that her nomination may be in jeopardy. And I’m just worried about what that will mean.”
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana, and Jerry Moran of Kansas are reportedly among those who could derail Gabbard’s nomination.
Republicans hold a one-seat majority on the committee.
If her nomination does make it out of committee, Vice President JD Vance may need to break a 50-50 ties to confirm Gabbard, as he did with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The battle over Gabbard has drawn generally pro-Trump national security analysts into the fray over her nomination that is defended by other Trump loyalists who insist the U.S. Intelligence Community needs such a radical overhaul that a recess appointment is justified.
John Schindler, a former NSA counterintelligence official, told The Washington Times that Gabbard’s nomination raises significant counterintelligence questions, including why she adopted positions that appear pro-Putin and pro-Assad and said she needs to fully explain her trip to Syria in 2017 when she met dictator Bashar Assad.
“What were those vexing 2017 NSA [signals intelligence] intercepts about that trip, just revealed by The New York Times, really about?” Schindler asked, suggesting the trip may have been why her name was placed on the federal terrorism watch list. “None of these are show-stopping events, by themselves, but they certainly merit Senate questions.”
Gabbard has said President Donald Trump’s decision in January 2020 to order a drone strike that killed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani was an act of war. Trump said at the time that Soleimani was plotting attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.
Gabbard said in 2023 that she opposed Japan’s rearmament in the face of growing threats from China. In January 2024, Tokyo signed a contract with the United States to buy 400 Tomahawk land attack missiles with enough range to hit targets throughout northeast China.
“We need to be careful that shortsighted, self-serving leaders do not end up bringing us again face-to-face with a remilitarized Japan,” Gabbard said on X.
A former U.S. official who opposes Gabbard’s nomination said she has a well-established track record of favoring leftist and anti-U.S. policies:
“This is her whole adult life’s pattern of knee-jerk anti-Americanism, anti-defense, supine-peace-niki — and as far as the research can establish, her network of friends, surfer pals, funders, colleagues and co-sponsors are similarly of the extreme left,” the former official said, speaking on background to avoid any retaliation from the Trump administration.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford, who is believed to support Gabbard, told reporters after Thursday’s hearing that he was “surprised” that she refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor, adding that it “wasn’t intended to be a trick question.”
Snowden defended Gabbard in a post to X: “Her sin is that she told the truth about the government spying on Americans, and for that she is getting absolutely persecuted.”
Snowden, who has been granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin, wrote in another social media post earlier this week that Gabbard will be “required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today. I encourage her to do so,. Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In D.C., that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance.”
At Thursday’s hearing, Gabbard slammed the narrative that she is a puppet for U.S. and world leaders, saying she is loyal to only God, the Constitution and her own conscience.
“Before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,” Gabbard said.
“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States. Accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters,” she continued.
“The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed,” she continued.
“The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change. The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents, is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator. I just hate al Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.”
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