Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard was on the hot seat Thursday as Senators grilled her about National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. They wanted her to call him a "traitor" in connection to classified NSA documents he leaked several years ago, according to The Hill.
While she was willing to admit that he "broke the law" (because the documents were classified), she wasn't willing to take things any further other than to state that she is "focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again."
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1. Gabbard’s Response on Spying Raises Senate Concerns over Confirmation
1. Gabbard’s Response on Spying Raises Senate Concerns over Confirmation
The documents Snowden leaked were information he found about the cooperation of United States internet companies with the government's acts of spying on American citizens, according to The Guardian.
Gabbard's response is making some on the Senate committee question whether or not they want to confirm her nomination.
As Director of national intelligence, Gabbard would be the leading intelligence official for the United States, and would also have the responsibility of preparing President Trump's daily intelligence briefing.
Long story short, the leak caused then President Obama to assign two teams of five people each to investigate the surveillance policy of the United States. This resulted in several new laws and regulations designed to limit what the United States government can do in the area of citizen surveillance, according to History.com.
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2. Gabbard Shifted from Democrat to Republican
2. Gabbard Shifted from Democrat to Republican
Gabbard was a part of Congress from 2013 – 2021 as a representative for Hawaii, and is a practicing Hindu. In fact, she was the first Hindu to be elected to the House. She was the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013-2016. Interestingly, her father Mike Gabbard, is a democrat and has been a part of Hawaii's state senate since 2006, according to the Women's Political Communication archives.
Causes that Gabbard was especially interested in supporting were government-run healthcare, free college tuition, and gun control, and these were a part of her platform when she ran for president against Joe Biden back in 2020, according to the BBC.
Then, in 2022, she apparently became disenchanted with the Democratic Party, accusing it of being an "elitist cabal of warmongers" driven by "cowardly wokeness."
She registered as an independent for a short time, speaking out on gender and freedom of speech. Finally, she decided to throw her support behind Donald Trump as he ran for a second presidential term, and she became a republican in 2024.
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3. Gabbard Served in the National Guard But Has No Intelligence Experience
3. Gabbard Served in the National Guard But Has No Intelligence Experience
Gabbard has served with the Hawaii Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq for 12 months and later to Kuwait, training counterterrorism units. That being said, she doesn't have any intelligence experience, yet she'd have leadership over 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion budget, according to ABC News.
She has also voiced support for Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war, even though Russia attacked Ukraine, and has blamed the U.S. for the Russia-Ukraine war in the past. In addition, she was accused of having an anti-American agenda in the past and standing in support of American adversaries. However, it's been reported that since her shift to the Republican party, her stance on foreign policy is more in line with Trump's, according to USA Today.
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4. Gabbard Shifted from Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life
4. Gabbard Shifted from Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life
As a Democrat, she took a hard-line stance against abortion. In response to a Political Courage Test back in 2020, she stated, "The very real possibility of Roe v Wade being overturned terrifies me. I am sick of women's bodies being used as pawns so politicians can score cheap political points at the expense of their freedom and safety. I am wholly committed to abortion remaining safe, legal, and rare. We must commit to defending a woman's right to choose. I also support sensible codifying of Roe v Wade preventing third-trimester abortion except when there are grave or life-threatening health consequences for the mother."
However, in October of 2022, she spoke out against the Biden administration for the imprisonment of several pro-life activists who had been accused of blocking a clinic entrance. She also spoke out against Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., when they attempted to claim the Supreme Court's ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson (overturning Roe v Wade) was illegitimate, according to USA Today.
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5. Gabbard Has Been Critical of How the Biden Administration's Handling World Conflicts
5. Gabbard Has Been Critical of How the Biden Administration's Handling World Conflicts
Gabbard noted that The Biden administration created a great deal of chaos as the 2024 election approached and continued to to do so as President Trump prepared for Inauguration Day, according to NPR.
"This [Biden] administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts in regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before," she said at a campaign rally prior to Trump getting voted in for a second term. She claimed the global chaos was one of "the main reasons" she was supporting the Trump presidency.
"I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war."
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Originally published February 03, 2025.
