Tulsi Gabbard has been officially confirmed as the new director of national intelligence. The former Democrat turned Republican is less hawkish on foreign policy and endorsed Trump because of his promises to fight for peace.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- The U.S. Senate voted 52-48 today to confirm former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii to serve as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined with the Democrats to vote against Gabbard in the final vote.
Gabbard, a Democrat turned Republican, supports President Trump's non-interventionist views and has praised him for pushing for peace, not war.
Her confirmation remained in doubt. However, it was all but sealed when liberal Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska came out in support of her. She also picked up the support of moderate Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana.
Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, overcame questions about her past comments and actions.
According to CBS News, Gabbard "faced scrutiny for meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017, as well as her comments about Russia's war in Ukraine, her previous opposition to renewing a key government surveillance authority and a push to pardon National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune supported Gabbard's nomination, according to CBS News.
"The intelligence community needs to refocus on its core mission – collecting intelligence and providing unbiased analysis of that information," Thune said. "That's what Tulsi Gabbard is committed to ensuring if she is confirmed to be DNI. And I believe she has the knowledge and leadership capabilities to get it done."She won the support of one skeptical Republican, Sen. James Lankford, after she said she supports the U.S. government being able to spy on non-U.S. citizens abroad, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
“Section 702, unlike other FISA authorities, is crucial for gathering foreign intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad,” she said in a recent statement, as reported by the New York Post. “This unique capability cannot be replicated and must be safeguarded to protect our nation while ensuring the civil liberties of Americans.”
Gabbard previously served in Congress as a Democrat and supported socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 run for president before running in the 2020 Democratic Party primaries.
During the race, she supported minimal limits on abortion, but that made her the least pro-abortion candidate in the race, as many, if not all, of the other candidates supported abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
However, she has since declared herself a Republican, campaigned for Trump, and won support from some conservatives for her criticism of pediatric surgical and chemical gender mutilation. Gabbard is also less hawkish and opposes endless foreign wars.
She joins Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Central Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe on Trump's foreign policy team.
