Tom Cotton, r-Ark. She said too often intelligence has been false or politicized, leading to wars, foreign policy failures and the misuse of espionage. And she said those lapses have continued as the U. Gabbard promised to be objective and noted her military service, saying she would bring the same sense of duty and responsibility to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees and coordinates the work of 18 intelligence agencies.
Given thin Republican margins in the Senate, she will need almost all GOP senators to vote yes in order to win confirmation. A former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for president in She has no formal intelligence experience, however, and has never run a government agency or department.
In a back-and-forth Thursday that at times grew heated, lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about her statements supportive of Snowden , a former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about surveillance programs. Several senators, including Republicans James Lankford of Oklahoma and Susan Collins of Maine, pressed Gabbard on whether she would push to pardon Snowden, or whether she considered him a traitor.
On the last question, Gabbard repeatedly declined to answer. Michael Bennet of Colorado. Gabbard said that while Snowden revealed important facts about surveillance programs she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets.
Gabbard has been accused of spreading Russian disinformation by Republican lawmakers and has even won praise in Russian state-controlled media. A visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad is another point of contention. Following her visit, Gabbard faced criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator and then more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used chemical weapons. Mark Warner of Virginia. Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.
