The Senate on Monday voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, signaling the collapse of Republican resistance to her nomination and placing her on a smooth path to confirmation.
The 52-to-46 vote was the latest sign that Republicans, facing intense pressure from President Trump to confirm his nominees, are willing to drop serious reservations and capitulate to his wishes. It cleared away the final hurdle to Ms. Gabbard’s confirmation, once thought to be an uphill battle in the Senate amid strong bipartisan concerns about her positions on intelligence matters and sympathetic statements about the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
She is now all but certain to be confirmed in a final vote to be held either late Tuesday evening or early Wednesday.
The action came as Democrats, who have called Ms. Gabbard unfit for the role, pressed their Republican colleagues to join them in opposition.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said it would be “irresponsible” to confirm Ms. Gabbard, calling her unfit to lead the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community in the United States.
“The world today is more complex and more dangerous than ever before; we need serious people with the experience, expertise and judgment to navigate that complexity,” Mr. Warner said in a speech moments before the vote. “Unfortunately, Ms. Gabbard is not such a nominee.”
Ms. Gabbard’s confirmation hearing was one of the most contentious of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks thus far, as she faced intense scrutiny from both Democrats and a number of Republicans. Senators from both parties pressed Ms. Gabbard on her past statements and positions, including her defense of Edward Snowden, the intelligence contractor turned whistle-blower, and her shift in stance on a warrantless wiretap surveillance program that she once sought to end.
Also troubling to some lawmakers was her history of conciliatory remarks about former Mr. Assad, and her apparent openness to Mr. Putin’s worldview.
But Ms. Gabbard ultimately earned the backing of every Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and avoided any delays in her confirmation process after persuading key lawmakers, including Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana, that she was aligned with their national intelligence priorities.
Before the hearing, both senators had signaled that they were undecided about moving ahead with Ms. Gabbard, but Ms. Collins and Mr. Young have since said that their concerns had been addressed and pledged their support.
On Monday, Republicans said Ms. Gabbard’s military experience, paired with her understanding of the nation’s intelligence agencies from her time in Congress, made her suitable to serve. And they praised her commitment to seeing through Mr. Trump’s goal of reining in the agency’s work force, which many Republicans have argued has ballooned beyond the size intended when the role of director of national intelligence was created in the wake of Sept. 11.
“The intelligence community needs to refocus on its core mission collecting intelligence and providing unbiased analysis of that information,” Senator John Thune, who is a Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said before the vote. “That’s what Tulsi Gabbard is committed to ensuring, if she is confirmed to be D.N.I., and I believe she has the knowledge and leadership capabilities to get it done.”
Ms. Gabbard’s advancement was another in a string of victories for Mr. Trump as he systematically wears down Republican skepticism to even his most baggage-laden nominees. Republicans were expected to move next to a test vote on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary, another selection that prompted concerns in both parties. But despite intense scrutiny of his vaccine skepticism and pro-abortion-rights stance, Republicans also appear poised to push him through to confirmation, likely by week’s end.
The post Senate Advances Gabbard, Signaling Quick Confirmation appeared first on New York Times.
