The Senate Intelligence Committee approved Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence in a private vote Tuesday, sending her to the full Senate floor for consideration.
While the panel vote represented a major hurdle, her confirmation by the full Senate still isn’t certain. She can only afford to lose three Republican votes, if all Democrats vote against her, as expected.
Some Republicans on the committee — including Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) — had concerns over Gabbard after she declined to call Edward Snowden a traitor, despite multiple opportunities to do so in her confirmation hearing last week. Those senators, as well as Susan Collins (R-Maine) all indicated in the past 24 hours that they would back her.
But there are still some senators outside of the committee who haven’t indicated how they plan to vote. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) released a statement expressing concerns about the former lawmaker after her hearing. Sens. Lisa Murkoswki of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also haven’t indicated if they plan to back her, and both broke with their party to oppose Pete Hegseth confirmation as Defense secretary.
In her confirmation hearing, she failed to quell some GOP concerns about her positions on critical intelligence issues. She offered wishy-washy answers about a key foreign surveillance law she only recently said she supported.
And after a barrage of criticism over her failure to call Snowden — the former NSA contractor who leaked highly classified information about surveillance programs — a traitor, she wrote in an op-ed this weekend explaining that she avoided that label because treason is a capital offense that carries the death penalty.
