Tulsi Gabbard faced a slew of questions from senators in both parties about her knowledge of national intelligence and concerns about her past during her Senate Intelligence confirmation hearing Thursday.
It was a far cry from the hearings for some other Donald Trump nominees, where most Republican senators used their time to defend, rather than question, the nominees. Multiple senators across both parties have expressed reservations about Gabbard. And at her hearing, she faced a rare bipartisan grilling.
Gabbard’s past support for Edward Snowden was a particular sticking point. In 2020, when she was a House Democrat, the DNI nominee introduced a resolution encouraging the United States government to drop its charges against Snowden.