US senate picks Tulsi Gabbard as national intelligence director

Tulsi Gabbard, a former US Democratic congresswoman now better known for her support of US President Donald Trump and extreme leaders abroad, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, was narrowly confirmed as director of national intelligence Wednesday.

The vote of 52-48 was almost completely along party lines, with former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell voting against Gabbard to oversee the country’s 18 spy agencies. 

The pick is considered ironic, given Gabbard’s past supportive comments of Putin, Syrian ex-President Bashar al-Assad and far-right Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

“Unfortunately, the American people have very little trust in the intelligence community, largely because they’ve seen the weaponisation and politicisation of an entity that is supposed to be purely focused on ensuring our national security,” Gabbard said, shortly after she was sworn in.

The vote took place following a series of speeches by Democratic senators late into the night urging their Republican colleagues to vote against Gabbard. It was also on the same day that spent 90 meetings in a meeting with Putin.

In a post on X, the group Republicans Against Trump wrote, “The Russians are celebrating, and our allies are horrified. Honestly, I don’t see how our allies can trust us and share sensitive intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard as DNI.”

This appeared to be a widespread sentiment across both major parties, though with the sitting senators largely falling in line, as they have for Trump’s multiple controversial cabinet picks for key positions.

“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,” McConnell said in a public statement following the confirmation.

The next high-profile controversial vote is for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services. As with the Gabbard, Democratic took turns explaining why they were voting against Kennedy, in a hearing Wednesday that brought him one step closer to his confirmation vote.

“We cannot take RFK Jr. at his word—something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and again. But we can take him at his record—which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence, and even profited from it,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington state during a floor hearing Wednesday.

Like Gabbard, Kennedy is also a former Democrat. He previously worked as an environmental lawyer and eventually got involved in fringe political movements, including anti-vaccination advocacy. Among his many fringe positions, Kennedy has spoken out against fluoride in water, and he has compared the work of the Centres for Disease Control to Nazi death camps. 

Though many of Trump’s picks were once seen as long-shots, so far they have consistently been narrowly confirmed along party lines.