{"id":2401828,"date":"2025-02-12T12:30:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T17:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-confirms-tulsi-gabbard-as-next-us-spy-chief-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T12:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T17:38:21","slug":"senate-confirms-tulsi-gabbard-as-next-us-spy-chief-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-confirms-tulsi-gabbard-as-next-us-spy-chief-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as next US spy chief &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenate-confirms-tulsi-gabbard-as-next-us-spy-chief-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2401828&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed by the Senate as the new Director of National Intelligence, following a narrow 52-48 vote largely along party lines. gabbard, President Trump&#8217;s nominee, \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-call-for-investigation-into-newly-confirmed-vanita-gupta\/\" title=\"... Call for Investigation Into Newly ... Vanita Gupta\">faced significant opposition<\/a> from Democratic senators, with Senate minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging Republicans to reject her nomination due to concerns\u200c over her fitness\u2063 for the role. Despite having served as a\u2062 Democrat for eight years adn previously as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, she received no Democratic \u2062support. <\/p>\n<p>Republican senators defended her nomination citing \u200cher over 20 years of military experience, including her rank\u200d as lieutenant colonel, arguing this made her qualified to \u2062led the intelligence community. Gabbard&#8217;s confirmation hearing stirred controversy, notably regarding her past statements on National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden \u2064and her previous interactions with figures like bashar Assad. Still, \u200bshe garnered enough Republican support to secure her nomination, reflecting a shift in \u200bher political alignment, as she announced her departure from the Democratic Party shortly after her confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard&#8217;s appointment comes in\u2063 a context of \u2063ongoing debates about the politicization of intelligence agencies\u200c in the U.S., following past \u200dcriticisms from Trump and other\u2064 Republicans.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as next US spy chief<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1992091\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Former Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tulsi-gabbard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Tulsi Gabbard<\/a>, President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Donald Trump<\/a>&rsquo;s pick to become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dni.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">director of national intelligence<\/a>, was confirmed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/news\/senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Senate<\/a> after Republicans rallied around her nomination.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>In a vote that fell mostly along party lines, the upper chamber voted 52-48 to confirm Gabbard to oversee and coordinate the work of the 18 intelligence agencies in the United States. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) broke with Trump and voted &ldquo;no.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Despite Gabbard serving in Congress as a Democrat for eight years and being the former vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, no Democrat backed her nomination. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pleaded with Republicans on the floor minutes before her vote to block Trump&rsquo;s &ldquo;awful&rdquo; nominee, saying she can&rsquo;t be trusted with the nation&rsquo;s secrets.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This endangers our security,&rdquo; Schumer said, turning across the aisle to his colleagues. &ldquo;You all know how bad she is.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But Republicans mentioned Gabbard&rsquo;s more than 20 years of military service, including her promotion to lieutenant colonel, saying she had the right qualifications and background to keep America safe.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The attacks on congresswoman Gabbard are another case of Democrats equating political disagreement with disloyalty,&rdquo; Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said. &ldquo;If Washington wants Americans to trust our intelligence agencies again, we need to take an ax to the weaponization of those very agencies.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Republicans were initially skeptical of Gabbard&rsquo;s nomination. She had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3305853\/tulsi-gabbard-nomination-turbulent-confirmation-hearing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/key-takeaways-from-gabbards-confirmation-hearing\/\" title=\"Key takeaways from ...&#039;s ...\">turbulent confirmation hearing<\/a><\/a> over her past support for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, previous comments that appeared sympathetic to Russia, and a meeting she had with former Syrian President Bashar Assad.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard&rsquo;s responses to questions on Snowden became the hearing&rsquo;s biggest flashpoint. She repeatedly refused to call Snowden a traitor, even as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle gave the former Democratic congresswoman more than a half-dozen chances to withdraw her past support of Snowden.<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard repeated that Snowden &ldquo;broke the law,&rdquo; but she declined to call him a traitor. She also mentioned that he exposed &ldquo;egregious, illegal, and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During her confirmation hearing, she told senators her opponents accuse her &ldquo;of being Trump&rsquo;s puppet, Putin&rsquo;s puppet, Assad&rsquo;s puppet, a guru&rsquo;s puppet, Modi&rsquo;s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>In her opening statement, she described the politicization of intelligence agencies, echoing Trump&rsquo;s rhetoric. She said Trump&rsquo;s opponents weaponized the FBI to &ldquo;falsely portray him as a puppet of Putin,&rdquo; and she criticized former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan.<\/p>\n<p>The former congresswoman from Hawaii&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3310320\/tulsi-gabbard-nomination-heads-senate-floor-intel-vote\/\">received a major boost<\/a>&nbsp;after several Republican senators announced they would vote for her, which allowed her nomination to advance out of the Senate Intelligence panel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sens. Todd Young (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), James Lankford (R-OK), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) appeared at one time to have concerns about Gabbard&rsquo;s views on several key matters. However, the four indicated they were more comfortable moving forward with the nomination after a closed session and further conversation. Her chances of confirmation increased following a pressure campaign by Trump allies and Vice President JD Vance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve has no intelligence experience and has never run a government agency or department. Gabbard ran for president in 2020 and dropped out and endorsed then-candidate Joe Biden. In 2022, she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party. Days ahead of the 2024 election, Gabbard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3199603\/tulsi-gabbard-joins-republican-party-trump-rally-north-carolina\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">said<\/a> she was joining the Republican Party at a Trump rally in North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">address intelligence failures exposed<\/a> by the 9\/11 attacks. Republicans have been critical of the office over the years, claiming it has expanded and become too politicized. Trump has also been suspicious of the nation&rsquo;s intelligence services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1992091\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1992091\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as US intelligence chief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2657,"featured_media":2401829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2196114937.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[16629,3740,37690,50262,32076],"class_list":["post-2401828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-confirmation","tag-senate","tag-tulsi-gabbard","tag-us-spy-chief","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2196114937.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2401828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401832,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401828\/revisions\/2401832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2401828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2401828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2401828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}