OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:00 AM – Tuesday, February 11, 2025
President Donald Trump’s nominee for the role of director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was voted on by the U.S. Senate to advance her nomination on Monday — clearing the path for a final confirmation vote this week.
The GOP-controlled Senate passed Gabbard’s confirmation by a 52-46 procedural vote.
All Republicans voted in favor of passing Gabbard’s nomination through, although GOP Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) did not show up to vote.
Gabbard was previously believed to be the most vulnerable candidate out of Trump’s nominees, as she does not have prior experience in national intelligence. However, GOP support grew stronger last week after DOGE leader Elon Musk and other Trump allies applied more pressure.
Gabbard previously drew criticism from senators after she refused to call Edward Snowden a “traitor,” though she did note that he “harmed our national security,” while also “reveal[ing] illegal and unconstitutional government programs that conducted mass surveillance of millions of Americans’ data,” which she argued was positive — as Americans deserve to know the truth of what was being carried out behind their backs.
Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, released classified documents in 2013 that detailed the extensive global surveillance programs that the NSA was running, including the unconstitutional mass surveillance of American citizens.
Gabbard further explained her position in an op-ed last week, writing: “Given the interest by committee members about whether Edward Snowden should be called a ‘traitor,’ here’s what I shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee in the closed session about why I do not casually throw around that term: Treason is a capital offense, punishable by death, yet politicians like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former US Senator Mitt Romney have slandered me, Donald Trump Jr. and others with baseless accusations of treason.”
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard previously twice deployed to the Middle East, also promised to end the “weaponization” of the intelligence community, and that she would open a channel for whistleblowers to come to her directly.
In the upcoming final vote, Gabbard can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans in the likely event that she receives no Democrat support.
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