Republican holdout Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Monday that she would vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Gabbard’s nomination appeared to be on the ropes after some Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled her over her support for whistleblower Edward Snowden and questionable comments about the intelligence community.
‘Ms. Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size.’
Among the swing votes were Collins, who said her concerns were satisfied after she personally spoke with Gabbard and heard that she planned to reduce the size and scale of the DNI office.
“After extensive consideration of her nomination, I will support Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence,” said Collins in a statement. “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence … has become far larger than it was designed to be, and Ms. Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size.”
Gabbard’s nomination may come down to Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who grilled her about Snowden during the hearing. She said unequivocally that she believed Snowden broke the law but would not say whether she still believed he deserved a pardon. Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said afterward that he was surprised by her response to the line of questioning.
“I was surprised because that doesn’t seem like a hard question on that,” Lankford said Thursday. “It wasn’t intended to be a trick question by any means.”
The committee will likely vote on Gabbard’s confirmation on Tuesday. If the committee approves, the entire Senate will vote on the confirmation.
“I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to strengthen our national security,” Collins concluded.
Collins came out against the nomination of Pete Hegseth to head the Department of Defense, but he was confirmed in a tie vote that was decided by Vice President JD Vance.
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