Gabbard’s Senate Critics Are More Interested In Protecting America’s Spy Agencies Than Fixing Them

Skip to comments.

Posted on 01/30/2025 7:00:59 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

President Trump’s pick to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has never been shy about sharing her criticisms of America’s surveillance state. So, it came as no surprise when some of its biggest defenders grilled her on the subject during her Thursday Senate confirmation hearing.

While testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard was repeatedly pressed by senators to offer a full-throated defense of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which intel agencies abused to spy on unsuspecting Americans and surveil Trump’s 2016 campaign.

As The Federalist’s Logan Washburn recently reported, “Section 702 of the legislation allows federal agencies to collect communications of noncitizens, outside the country, without a warrant.” It furthermore “supposedly bars the government from spying on Americans,” Washburn noted, “but the CIA was caught in 2022 using the law — which Congressional Republicans reauthorized last year — to spy on Americans.”

While serving in Congress, Gabbard co-sponsored legislation alongside Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that sought to reform FISA and revoke the Patriot Act. She has since been all but forced to change her position on FISA, seemingly to gain support from some Republican senators.

Gabbard was asked about her evolving position on the law by the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. Yet when Gabbard attempted to answer Warner’s question about which FISA Section 702 reforms she supports, the Virginia Democrat cut her off and wouldn’t allow her to finish.

It wasn’t only Warner who...

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson