Tulsi Gabbard, chosen by President Donald Trump to be his intelligence czar, on Thursday faces what could be the toughest confirmation hearing of any of his top nominees, with Democrats and some Republicans preparing to grill the former congresswoman on her 2017 trip to Syria, her public comments in support of Russia and her concerns about domestic surveillance powers.
Her approval by the Senate Intelligence Committee to be Director of National Intelligence is far from assured, according to two congressional officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s controversial nominee.
“She definitely doesn’t have the votes right now” to advance out of the intelligence committee, said a Senate aide. The panel has 9 Republican and 8 Democratic members, meaning a single Republican “no” vote could sink Gabbard’s chances.
Gabbard – a former Army reserve lieutenant colonel, Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate in 2020 who turned Republican last year – has at times labeled the tens of thousands of intelligence personnel she would oversee as members of an elite “deep state.” She questioned U.S. intelligence findings on the former Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons on its own people, and has echoed Kremlin talking points about the roots of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Democrats, led by committee vice chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), are expected to question Gabbard closely about her trip to Syria eight years ago, where she met with then-President Bashar al-Assad while he was under U.S. sanctions and accused of widespread human rights abuses.
Some Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have registered concerns over Gabbard’s past opposition to a powerful intelligence surveillance tool under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Gabbard, who had cited privacy concerns about the powers, has recently muted her criticisms of the program, which U.S. security officials describe as vital in combating terrorism, weapons proliferation and drug trafficking.
“I think she’s on a tough road,” said a Republican staffer. “There is very healthy skepticism about her among the Republicans.”
Underscoring the uneasy state of her nomination, Senate Republicans have discussed several unorthodox maneuvers to push it through. Under one scenario, according to another congressional official, the committee would break with past practice and vote on Gabbard in public rather than behind closed doors – in theory making it harder for GOP members to oppose Trump on the issue.
Alternately, the committee could advance the nomination to the full Senate floor without voting on it. It remains unclear whether committee chairman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), would approve either course. A Cotton spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Cotton, in an interview Sunday with Fox News, said, “I understand that people have their differences of opinion with Ms. Gabbard. Probably some Republicans disagree with the vote she’s cast as a Democratic congresswoman. A lot of Democrats may be upset that she finally saw the light and left the Democratic Party. I do hope though that we won’t see anyone questioning her patriotism.”
While stopping short of predicting her confirmation, Cotton cited Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, whose nomination seemed in peril but was narrowly confirmed after Vice President JD Vance broke a tie in the Senate. “I think there’s a lot of people making predictions on background about the president’s nominees that don’t come true,” Cotton said.
Gabbard retains strong support among Trump’s allies, who view the Iraq War veteran as an independent thinker who will bring needed change to U.S. spy agencies that, they charge, have tried to undermine Trump and have repeatedly misread world events.
As she prepared for the confirmation process, Gabbard has won over some initial skeptics.
“I was concerned about her because she ran for president as a left-wing Democrat, but I think she listens – which is unusual for a politician – she asks great questions that go to the heart of the issue and she’s a total patriot,” said Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s national security adviser during the final part of his first term and has been briefing her in recent weeks. “She has genuinely embraced President Trump’s America First national security agenda.”
O’Brien is among several dozen former intelligence and security officials who served in mostly Republican administrations who wrote a letter to Cotton and Warner on Monday urging Gabbard’s confirmation. “As former collectors, analysts, consumers, and enablers of intelligence, we support Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard to lead the IC (Intelligence Community). She has the integrity, and moral courage, to restore objectivity and professionalism to the nation’s intelligence agencies,” they wrote.
To prepare for her hearing, Gabbard visited the Northern Virginia headquarters of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and met several times with President Joe Biden’s DNI, Avril Haines, said Gabbard spokeswoman Alexa Henning. She has spoken with others who served in the role, including Ric Grenell, John Negroponte and John Ratcliffe, who is now Trump’s CIA director, she said.
Gabbard has met with all Republican members of the Intelligence Committee and some Democrats, Henning said.
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard would coordinate the work of 18 intelligence agencies and bureaus. The intelligence chief has authority over the roughly $100 billion annual intelligence budget, holds broad powers to declassify U.S. secrets and is generally considered the president’s top intelligence adviser. The DNI does not have direct control over day-to-day operations at the CIA or other agencies.
Intelligence Committee member Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), said he had concerns about Gabbard’s amplification of false Russian claims used to justify its invasion of Ukraine – in particular, that the United States was funding dozens of biological laboratories in Ukraine developing dangerous pathogens. He also cited her questioning of Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
Gabbard “has sort of a habit of spreading some things that are pretty obviously to us – and should be obvious to her – that are from Russian sources,” Kelly told The Post.
“You’ve got to have the ability to try and sort out what’s the priority and what’s real and what isn’t and where is the risk and assess that risk and then make recommendations on what to do next. I just don’t think she is the person to do that,” Kelly said.
While Gabbard’s apparent susceptibility to Russian propaganda is troubling to senior U.S. lawmakers, Russian propagandists have cheered her nomination to the pinnacle of U.S. intelligence.
“About Tulsi Gabbard it’s really incredible. She is a staunch anti-globalist to the core. It was impossible to imagine,” said Alexander Dugin, the Russian imperialist ideologue sometimes referred to as “Putin’s brain” because of his influence on the revanchist thinking of the Russian president.
“If Tulsi Gabbard will be confirmed, then we can consider that our position is becoming stronger,” said Edward Lozansky, a Putin supporter who runs the American University in Moscow.
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Warren P. Strobel, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Catherine Belton