Tulsi Gabbard Stands by Edward Snowden During Contentious ODNI Confirmation Hearing

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Posted on 01/30/2025 7:41:04 PM PST by SeekAndFind

'The Senate Intel Committee spent nearly the entirety of its session today furiously demanding that DNI nominee Gabbard condemn me personally, a position now opposed by something like 94% of Americans...'

President Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, faced sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike Thursday during a fiery confirmation hearing focused on her past support for whistleblower Edward Snowden—but Gabbard stood her ground and refused to disavow him.

Gabbard started her hearing by telling lawmakers that big changes are needed to address years of failures of America’s intelligence service. She said too often intelligence has been false or politicized, leading to wars, foreign policy failures and the misuse of espionage.

“The bottom line is this must end. President Trump’s reelection is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure and the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community,” Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Gabbard promised to be objective and noted her military service, saying she would bring the same sense of duty and responsibility to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees and coordinates the work of 18 intelligence agencies.

The questions raised by senators about Gabbard’s judgment and experience make her one of the more contentious of Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Given thin Republican margins in the Senate, she will need almost all GOP senators to vote yes in order to win confirmation.

A former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard 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.

In a back-and-forth Thursday that at times grew heated, lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about her statements supportive of Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Russia after exposing a vast and previously hidden domestic surveillance system in America.

Several senators, including Republicans James Lankford of Oklahoma and Susan Collins of Maine, pressed Gabbard on whether she would push to pardon Snowden, or whether she considered him a traitor. On the last question, Gabbard repeatedly declined to answer.

“Yes or no, is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?” asked Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Gabbard said that while Snowden revealed important facts about surveillance programs she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. “Edward Snowden broke the law,” she said.

Following the hearing, Snowden himself spoke about the matter, noting that the vast majority of Americans support him being pardoned.

The Senate Intel Committee spent nearly the entirety of its session today furiously demanding that DNI nominee Gabbard condemn me personally, a position now opposed by something like 94% of Americans.

Courts have been ruling for ten years that NSA broke the law, guys. Move on.

https://t.co/dWUpiUlyw3

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 30, 2025

“The Senate Intel Committee spent nearly the entirety of its session today furiously demanding that DNI nominee Gabbard condemn me personally, a position now opposed by something like 94% of Americans,” Snowden said on Twitter/X. “Courts have been ruling for ten years that NSA broke the law, guys. Move on.”

Senators also pressed her about her changing views of the surveillance program known as Section 702, which allows authorities to collect the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.

As a lawmaker, Gabbard sponsored legislation that would have repealed it. She argued then that 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.

Gabbard defended her change of opinion, and said her critics are opposed to her nomination because she asks tough questions and doesn’t always follow Washington dogma.

“The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is that I refuse to be their puppet,” she said.

Gabbard is among a couple of nominees who are facing more difficultly gaining unanimous support from Republican senators. Sens. Todd Young, Susan Collins and James Lankford were among the most aggressive questioners Thursday, but it remained unclear if they were satisfied enough by her responses to move her out of committee and confirm her on the Senate floor. The committee has not yet scheduled a vote.

There has been much discussion over whether the committee vote on Gabbard should be made in public or in private as the panel usually operates. Many of Trump’s supporters want it to be public to pressure any GOP senator who is considering opposing her nomination.

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.”

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1 posted on 01/30/2025 7:41:04 PM PST by SeekAndFind

To: SeekAndFind

2 posted on 01/30/2025 7:42:06 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)

To: SeekAndFind

3 posted on 01/30/2025 7:45:26 PM PST by Az Joe (We can't spare President Trump; He fights!)

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