Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as intelligence chief despite fierce opposition from California’s Schiff
.jpg "Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday as Director of National Intelligence. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was vigorously opposed to her nomination.")
A few weeks before he was sworn in last fall as a U.S. senator, the Bee asked Adam Schiff which of Donald Trump’s nominees troubled him the most.
He didn’t hesitate.
“Tulsi Gabbard,” the California Democrat said. “She has no experience in the intelligence community. She didn’t even serve on the (House) Intelligence Committee. She has a very questionable fondness for dictators who gas their own people and poison their own people like Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin.”
Schiff was sworn into office as California’s junior senator in December. He’d been trying to convince colleagues ever since that Gabbard was unfit to become Director of National Intelligence.
Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Gabbard for the job, 52-48.
Every Republican but one, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, voted to confirm her. All 47 senators who caucus with Democrats were opposed.
“Tulsi is an Army officer who has served our country faithfully and well for over two decades. I’ve known her for a long time, and we served in the same Capitol Hill reserve unit,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina.
Gabbard and Trump
Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic member of the House from Hawaii from 2013 to 2021 who backed liberal Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president in 2016. She ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
In recent years, critical of Democrats’ policies on terrorism and foreign affairs, she became a Republican and a vocal Trump supporter.
Gabbard has stirred controversy. In 2017, she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was accused of atrocities against thousands of people. She’s been critical of American efforts to aid Ukraine in the war against Russia, and a Russian state media commentator referred to her as “our girlfriend Tulsi.”
Schiff was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 2019 to 2023, and in the four prior years was its top Democrat.
During last fall’s interview with The Bee, Schiff expressed concern that if confirmed, employees would leave their jobs and U.S. allies would be less willing to share intelligence “because they won’t trust us with it.”
Monday, in a Senate floor speech, he described the Director of National Intelligence as the “nerve center of our nation’s intelligence network” He described how it coordinates 18 government agencies responsible for detecting and preventing threats to national security.
“It’s a job that requires judgment. It requires experience. It requires a high degree of trust. Above all — it requires a deep and unwavering commitment to the truth. And a willingness to stand up to despots,” Schiff said.
“And yet, the nominee before us is stunningly lacking in all of these qualities. Ms. Gabbard’s record in Congress is not one of distinction in intelligence matters,” he maintained.
He got support from fellow Democrats who issued the same warning.
“By nominating Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence, Trump is putting our national security at risk,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., on X.
McConnell, as the only Republican to oppose Gabbard, said, “The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment.”
Republican support
But other Republicans had no hesitation in backing her. Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, called her “more than qualified.”
“The attacks on Congresswoman Gabbard are another case of Democrats equating political disagreement with disloyalty,” he said.
Gabbard, he argued, “will keep politics out of intelligence gathering. She wants to return ODNI to its original size, scope, and mission.”
Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, praised Gabbard’s military and congressional service. In those roles, he said, “Ms. Gabbard has been a consumer of intelligence. She knows that good decisions depend on having the best information.”
Schiff wasn’t buying any of that. He made his pitch to colleagues on the Senate floor with a plea.
“Where do we draw the line with Donald Trump?” he asked. “What national security threat or risk will it take? What action could he commit where we would be joined by our Republican colleagues in saying we’ve had enough? Where is the line?“
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as intelligence chief despite fierce opposition from California’s Schiff."
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