Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and an Army combat veteran, passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a 9-8 party-line vote last week. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former Senate majority leader, appeared to be the only “no” vote for Gabbard in the GOP during the final vote.
“The [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] wields significant authority over how the intelligence community allocates its resources, conducts its collection and analysis and manages the classification and declassification of our nation’s most sensitive secrets. In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust,” McConnell said in a statement.
At least two Republican senators on the high chamber’s intelligence panel were hesitant about Gabbard after she testified in her confirmation hearing late last month, but public statements from those lawmakers — which include Todd Young of Indiana and Susan Collins of Maine — indicated their concerns with her were adequately addressed in private meetings.
Chief among those concerns included her apparent hesitancy to not call National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor to the country. Around a decade ago, Snowden leaked troves of files detailing highly classified surveillance programs managed by the NSA in his time as a contractor for the signals intelligence giant.
“I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,” Gabbard said in her recent testimony, referring to the Snowden leaks, which spark ..
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