Sen. Collins to Vote for Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence

Sen. Susan Collins addresses the press in Washington Crossing, Pa., on Nov. 6, 2022. Mark Makela/Getty Images

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced on Feb. 3 that she will support former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence (DNI), providing Gabbard with a key vote.

“After extensive consideration of her nomination, I will support Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence,” Collins said in a statement.

Collins said Gabbard would return the office of DNI “to its intended size.” During the hearing, it was mentioned that the office, which oversees America’s 18 intelligence agencies, has become expansive in terms of its number of personnel.

The senator went on to say that Gabbard, a former Democrat who represented Hawaii in the House for eight years, “addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden.”

During last week’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Gabbard’s nomination, questions came up regarding her past statements on Snowden, who is in Russia on asylum after leaking U.S. national security secrets in 2013. Gabbard declined, when asked multiple times, to say that Snowden is a traitor.

She said DNI should be “focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again.” She acknowledged that Snowden “broke the law.”

Gabbard also mentioned the need to prevent “another Snowden-type leak.”

“And I’ve laid out specific actions if confirmed as DNI to do that,” she said.

Also during the hearing, questions about her past views on Russia and Syria came up. Gabbard was asked about her 2017 meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She said she talked to him about his use of chemical weapons on his own people. Gabbard has said that Assad is “not the enemy of the United States.”

On the Russia–Ukraine war, in the past she blamed Ukraine and NATO for the conflict.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on social media platform X in February 2022, shortly after the invasion.

During her confirmation hearing, however, Gabbard said Russia is to blame.

Were one Republican to join all Democrats on the committee in voting against advancing Gabbard’s nomination, that would be enough to reject her in the committee, though the full Senate could vote to confirm her anyway.

The GOP controls the Senate, 53–47, and can afford to lose three of its members if no Democrats support Gabbard. Vice President JD Vance would break a tie.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.