Washington – Senate Republicans are pushing to hold a confirmation hearing for Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as director of national intelligence, before his inauguration, but Democrats are resisting setting a date for next week.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, the Senate Intelligence Committee has yet to receive the necessary paperwork from Gabbard, including an FBI background check, ethics disclosure, and pre-hearing questionnaire, which must be submitted a week before a confirmation hearing.
A spokesperson for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said the committee intends to hold a hearing before Inauguration Day, but a date has not yet been set. The committee has not received the necessary paperwork from Gabbard, but expects to do so shortly.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed his skepticism about Gabbard’s nomination, stating that he has “a lot of questions” for her and is concerned about protecting the independence of the intelligence community.
Gabbard’s nomination has been met with controversy due to her relative inexperience in the intelligence community, her public adoption of positions on Syria and Ukraine that are seen as Russian propaganda, and her distrust of broad government surveillance authorities.
Gabbard has taken stances that go against US foreign policy, including meeting with the former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, blaming the Biden administration’s failure to acknowledge “Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.”