Tulsi Gabbard Secures Confirmation to Trump's Cabinet With Only One Republican Voting Against Her

The Senate confirmed on Wednesday Tulsi Gabbard as Donald Trump's director of national intelligence. The vote was largely along party lines, with only one Republican senator going against the party: Mitch McConnell, the former GOP leader who has clashed with Donald Trump and also voted against Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. He joined all Democrats in voting against her, with the final vote being 52-48.

Gabbard overcame concerns voiced by some Republicans after her candidacy was announced. A 2017 trip so Syria, which included a meeting with then-President Bashar al-Assad, sympathetic comments about Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as her support for Edward Snowden were among the main reasons for this. In fact, Semafor reported in late January that there were some potential holdouts, with an unnamed GOP senator saying there were "very serious concerns by enough members to put her nomination in jeopardy."

However, those concerns were seemingly addressed as all but one Republican senators ended up supporting her. During her hearing, Gabbard seemingly backtracked on previous statements regarding whether she believes al-Assad used chemical weapons on the country's population, saying she "asked him tough questions about his own regime's actions," including the "use of chemical weapons and brutal tactics being used against his own people."

Gabbard also backtracked on Snowden, saying she's no longer in favor of pardoning him, even if she repeatedly refused to call him a traitor following questions from both Democrats and Republicans during the hearing. The former lawmaker repeated that Snowden "broke the law" and even though she does not "agree with all the information he released nor in the way he did it," he "released information that exposed egregious illegal and unconstitutional programs happening within our government."

Gabbard also overcame public criticism from nearly 100 former U.S. officials, who in early December signed an open letter requesting her candidacy be rejected. They included Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, former National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, along with a slew of additional former intelligence and national security officials.

"Her sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad raises questions about her judgment and fitness," the letter stated.

Former national security adviser John Bolton also said in December that Gabbard has shown "an inclination to believe the most outrageous propaganda against the United States by some of its strongest enemies."

Speaking to POLITICO, Bolton, who repeatedly criticized Gabbard since she was nominated, cited as an example the unfounded theory about the U.S. conducting biological warfare research in Ukraine.