Gabbard Moves Closer to Becoming Director of National Intelligence

Nomination Clears Senate Intelligence Committee

By Louis Conte, Health Freedom Editor, The Kennedy Beacon

Tulsi Gabbard is moving closer to becoming the Director of National Intelligence. The Senate Intelligence Committee approved her nomination on Tuesday.

The full Senate will vote on Gabbard’s nomination in the coming days.

The Intelligence Committee vote, 9 Republicans to 8 Democrats, followed last week’s hearing during which Gabbard was challenged by members of both parties over her statements about Edward Snowden. Gabbard described Snowden “as having broken the law” but stopped short of calling him “a traitor.”

Gabbard’s hearing was contentious. Reports suggest President Donald Trump and presidential advisor Elon Musk were negotiating with Republican senators behind the scenes to ensure that her nomination moved forward.

Like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who also cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Gabbard is seen as one of Trump’s more controversial cabinet selections because she is viewed as someone who will shake up the national intelligence community. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s pro-Gabbard vote augurs well for President Trump, all of whose nominees are on track for confirmation.

For free speech and civil liberties advocates, a Gabbard confirmation would be especially sweet. Increasingly, Americans feel that the nation’s intelligence infrastructure has turned against them in ways inconsistent with the Constitution. Gabbard promises to reign in the excesses of the nations’ intelligence bureaucracy and what has been described as the “surveillance state.” In brief, Gabbard says she will align National Intelligence with constitutional principles.

Last year, Gabbard was placed on a domestic terror watch list under the auspices of a previously unknown TSA program called ‘Quiet Skies,’ which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, as described on Rising by both Gabbard and Racket News publisher, Matt Taibbi. According to Taibbi, the program has put thousands of Americans under surveillance.

‘Quiet Skies’ became known after a whistleblower revealed the existence of the program. The episode highlighted concerns that many of the nation’s intelligence services have become an instrument of deep state actors.

Gabbard, who enlisted in the U.S. Army following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. She was elected to Congress as a Democrat for Hawaii’s Second Congressional District, where she served from 2013 to 2021. She ran for President of the United States in 2020, as a Democrat. Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022. Her placement on the Quiet Skies watch list reportedly occurred after her decision to endorse Trump for president.

In her opening remarks before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard thanked President Trump “for his trust and confidence” in nominating her to serve as Director of National Intelligence “at a time when trust in the intelligence community is unfortunately at an all-time low.” As evidence, she cited, among other instances, the lack of solid intelligence for the U.S. government’s ‘disastrous’ decision to invade Iraq after 9/11, which led to the deaths of “tens of thousands of American soldiers and millions of people in the Middle East.”

Despite the party-line fireworks over Snowden, Republican senators on the Intelligence Committee voted to approve Gabbard.

More Republican senators, like Susan Collins of Maine, have signaled their support as well. This suggests momentum and a positive outcome for Gabbard when the full senate votes on her nomination.