WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senators of both parties sharply questioned Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, during a tense and at times combative hearing Thursday that could signal a challenging confirmation fight.
Over more than two hours, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sounding by turns skeptical and outraged, pressed Gabbard about her 2017 meeting with Bashar Assad, the Syrian dictator who was ousted in December, and her statements blaming the United States and NATO for provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But it was her refusal to fully denounce Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked reams of classified information about government surveillance programs in 2013, that seemed to elicit the most concern among both Republicans and Democrats.
She refused, under repeated questioning by members of both parties, to declare that Snowden was a “traitor,” replying instead that he “broke the law” and that she would seek to prevent similar leaks in the future, if she were confirmed to oversee the nation’s 18 spy agencies.
Gabbard said Snowden, whose most significant disclosure was the bulk data collection of Americans’ phone metadata, had “exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government.”
Her responses seemed to leave several committee members unsatisfied.
“Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., asked in a thunderous voice. “That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high.”
Gabbard did not directly answer. “As someone who wore the uniform of this nation in combat, I understand how critical our national security is,” she said, as Bennet cut her off. “Apparently, you don’t,” he said.
Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Todd Young of Indiana — also took issue with Gabbard’s views on Snowden, who fled the United States and now lives in Russia.
“Was he a traitor at the time when he took America’s secrets, released them in public and then ran to China and became a Russian citizen?” Lankford asked Gabbard.
She responded, “Senator, I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again.” In the past, Gabbard has said that Snowden should be pardoned and, as a Democratic member of the House, she sponsored legislation calling for the charges against him to be dropped.
It is unclear how many Republicans may find her views disqualifying. If all Democrats oppose her nomination, the opposition of any one Republican on the committee could stop her from getting to a full Senate vote.
Gabbard has an unconventional background to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to better coordinate among spy agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI.
She grew up in a fringe spiritual movement and was a darling of the left during her early years in Congress, but has ricocheted across nearly the entire ideological spectrum of American politics, fueling questions about what she stands for and truly believes.
Gabbard’s supporters sought to allay those concerns by pointing to her military career and praising her service in the Iraq War. Several referred to her by her military title.
“Rest assured: Lt. Col. Gabbard loves this country — a fact proven by the fact that she put her life on the line to defend it,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a fellow veteran, said in introducing Gabbard to the panel.
In her opening remarks, Gabbard said her priority would be to end the “politicization” of intelligence and the “weaponization” of spy agencies against political opponents. She echoed the themes of Trump’s attacks on what he calls the “deep state,” citing what she said were examples of the intelligence community targeting people close to Trump.
“I’ll begin by leading by example, checking my own personal views at the door and committing to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed and reported without bias, prejudice or political influence,” Gabbard said.
Democrats went on the offensive almost immediately. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, opened the hearing by saying he had “serious doubts” about Gabbard’s judgment, citing her past support of Snowden.
Gabbard picked up a critical endorsement before the hearing even began. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., the Republican who leads the committee, told Fox News he would support her nomination. And he began the hearing by defending Gabbard, saying he shared her criticism of the Obama administration’s policies toward Egypt and Libya.
Other Republicans pursued a more critical line of questioning, returning several times to ask her about Snowden. Young asked Gabbard about a 2016 House Intelligence Committee report that found that Snowden had caused “tremendous damage” to national security.
Gabbard responded by saying again that Snowden “broke the law.” She also said that she disagreed with how he had leaked classified information and with the volume of material he released.
Young responded: “It’s notable you didn’t say, yes, clearly, he hurt in various ways our national security.”
Throughout the hearing, Gabbard weighed in on some of the most contentious battles over operations by U.S. spy agencies since the Sept. 11 attacks.
She condemned the 2003 invasion of Iraq ordered by President George W. Bush, a Republican, as based on “fabricated” intelligence. She blasted “regime-change wars” in Libya and Syria, where President Barack Obama, a Democrat, gave U.S. support to rebel groups trying to topple governments.
And she made it clear that she sees Islamic extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group as the country’s most urgent threats, and that the United States should be wary of trying to overthrow governments — even autocratic ones — that are fighting those extremist groups.
“What truly unsettles my political opponents is, I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad, Gadhafi or any dictator,” she said, referring to former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. “I just hate al-Qaida. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
