WASHINGTON — Tulsi Gabbard moved a step nearer to being the following director of nationwide intelligence Monday after the U.S. Senate superior her nomination to a closing vote deliberate for later this week.
The Senate may maintain its closing vote on confirming Gabbard as quickly as Wednesday following Monday’s 52-46 procedural vote to finish debate on her nomination, which fell alongside occasion traces.
Created following the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults, the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence oversees and coordinates the work of 18 intelligence companies.
A former Democratic congresswoman, Gabbard is one in every of President Donald Trump’s most contentious nominees, given her previous feedback sympathetic to Edward Snowden and Russia and a assembly with Syria’s now-deposed chief.
With sturdy Democratic opposition and solely a skinny Republican majority, nearly all GOP senators might want to vote sure for her to win affirmation. Gabbard’s probabilities vastly improved final week after some Republican lawmakers who had expressed issues about her affirmed their assist within the face of a strain marketing campaign mounted by Trump allies together with Elon Musk.
Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel within the Nationwide Guard who deployed twice to the Center East and ran for president in 2020.
Her previous reward of Snowden drew significantly harsh questions throughout her Senate nomination listening to. The previous Nationwide Safety Company contractor fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing categorised details about surveillance applications.
Gabbard stated that whereas Snowden broke legal guidelines concerning the safety of categorised secrets and techniques, he revealed necessary info about surveillance applications she believes are unconstitutional.
A 2017 go to with Syrian President Bashar Assad was one other flash level. Assad was not too long ago deposed following a brutal civil struggle by which he was accused of utilizing chemical weapons. Following her go to, Gabbard confronted criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator after which extra questions when she stated she was skeptical that Assad had used chemical weapons.
Gabbard defended assembly with Assad, saying she used the chance to press the Syrian chief on his human rights report.
She has additionally repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, and prior to now opposed a key U.S. surveillance software, although she now says she helps this system.
