Senators voted to advance Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence in a party-line vote Monday evening, setting the stage for a final confirmation vote later this week.
Having secured the support of 52 Senate Republicans, Gabbard, one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees, is on track to be confirmed as the nation’s top intelligence official in the coming days. Forty six Democrats in the chamber voted against Gabbard. Two senators were absent from the vote.
GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — who had been seen as potential swing votes — voted to advance the nomination of the former Democratic lawmaker.
Monday’s vote was held under a procedural measure known as cloture, which has been invoked in regard to some of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet nominees, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Once passed, the measure allows for up to 30 hours of debate on a measure before a final vote can be held.
Gabbard passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a party line vote following a contentious confirmation hearing at the end of January. Lawmakers from both parties quizzed Gabbard on her past remarks about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, her 2017 meeting with the former Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad and her views on a controversial government surveillance authority known as section 702.
In remarks ahead of Monday’s vote, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee argued that Gabbard doesn’t have the judgement needed for the job, warning: “Nothing less than our national security is on the line.”
As Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard will oversee the 18 government agencies and components that make up the U.S. intelligence community, and will serve as the primary intelligence adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spoke in favor of Gabbard’s nomination before the vote and criticized bureaucratic bloat at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I’m glad that Ms. Gabbard plans to focus on identifying and eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies to restore the office to what it was originally designed to do,” Thune said.
