Republicans are cautioning that Tulsi Gabbard’s path to affirmation to guide the U.S. Intelligence equipment is narrowing as she seemingly has bother profitable over key GOP senators.
Gabbard, together with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kash Patel, are set for his or her high-stakes affirmation hearings this week as senators face a few of President Trump’s most controversial nominees.
However it’s Gabbard who seems to have probably the most tenuous path to affirmation as she struggles to assuage Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which can decide her destiny, forward of Thursday’s listening to.
“I think it remains to be seen,” mentioned Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an Intelligence member, when requested if Gabbard can win assist of the committee. “I think the jury’s still out.”
A second Senate Republican agreed, telling The Hill that Gabbard “has a path [that] continues to narrow.”
Gabbard can’t afford to lose a single vote on the Intelligence Committee, which has a 9-8 get together cut up and options two GOP members who’re thought of swing votes: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), who final week voted in opposition to one other Trump nominee on the ground, and Todd Younger (Ind.).
Collins advised The Hill in an interview that she desires to press Gabbard on her stance on Part 702 of the International Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits for the warrantless surveillance of international targets.
Gabbard has sought to stroll again her previous criticism of this system, however Collins advised The Hill she doesn’t essentially consider Gabbard’s change of coronary heart.
“There are several questions I want to follow up on in the hearing,” Collins mentioned, including that she didn’t wish to preview all of them “because I want to hear her unpracticed responses” regardless that she expects Gabbard shall be effectively ready.
“But there are a lot of obvious issues,” Collins mentioned. “Her answers to the written questions were very hedged on it. I know there’s been a lot of reporting that she’s changed her position. That’s not how I read her answers. I read them as, ‘I’ll take a look at the reforms and see if they meet my concerns.’”
Gabbard, as a Democratic member of the Home, proposed laws in 2020 to repeal Part 702 and has voted in opposition to reauthorizing this system.
However she just lately advised Punchbowl Information that the 702 program is “crucial” and “have to be safeguarded to guard our nation whereas guaranteeing the civil liberties of Individuals” in an tried turnabout.
“If confirmed as [intelligence director], I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people,” Gabbard mentioned.
Her newest assertion leaves unclear whether or not she would again a warrant requirement to evaluate info swept up on Individuals — a key situation for privacy-minded lawmakers however one 702 backers really feel would intestine this system.
Collins additionally introduced up issues about Gabbard’s views on Syria and her 2017 assembly with ex-President Bashar Assad.
She mentioned is not going to decide on the nomination till after the listening to. Collins voted in opposition to Trump’s nominee to guide the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, twice final week.
As for Younger, two Senate GOP aides described the ex-Marine as being a “problem” for Gabbard.
“Those members are going to have a really hard time getting to ‘yes,’” one of many GOP aides mentioned.
The panel-based issues come after studies emerged that Gabbard was struggling in conferences with Senate Republicans in an try to win them over.
Complicating the scenario for Gabbard is that her issues are completely different from those who plagued Hegseth, one among Trump’s extra controversial nominees.
Hegseth’s points had been largely centered on private issues, together with allegations of sexual improprieties and drunkenness.
Gabbard’s are nearly all policy-focused, which have been more durable for some members to beat.
She additionally doesn’t have the communications chops of Hegseth, or the backup from conservative media, which rushed to his facet when his nomination was flatlining in early December.
“[He] has conservative credentials and Fox friends to rely on to buoy support,” the Senate GOP aide mentioned. “She’s a Democrat. … She is not one of us, still. There’s not like this built up goodwill of like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to dig her out of a hole.’”
Even when she had been to get by way of the committee, there are different members signaling they are going to oppose her. The Senate GOP aide famous that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is making it clear to members of the GOP convention that he’s “adamantly” against her.
McConnell’s workplace mentioned it didn’t have any info to share about his deliberate nominee votes.
Alexa Henning, a Gabbard spokesperson, famous there usually are not any public “no” votes and pointed to constructive conferences she’s had on each side of the aisle forward of her listening to.
“There is not one GOP Senator on record opposing Lt. Col. Gabbard’s nomination. In fact, there are many on record including bipartisan members of the Senate Intel Committee who have shown positive support for her nomination and qualifications,” Henning mentioned in an announcement.
“She’s met with almost every GOP Senator in the U.S. Senate and Democrats who’ve accepted her invitation to meet. She is continuing the advice and consent process in the Senate and looks forward to her hearing.”
Whereas Gabbard faces issues, senators consider each Kennedy and Patel have stable paths towards affirmation.
Kennedy confronted preliminary questions given his previous feedback about vaccines, particularly the polio vaccine. Nonetheless, his push to tamp down concern on that entrance has seemingly labored, with Republicans anticipated to again him — barring a catastrophic efficiency earlier than both the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday or the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee a day later.
“People are getting pretty comfortable with him, actually. … What they do is meet him and then they like him,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) mentioned.
“We all have daughters and wives and granddaughters who just think he’s Elvis,” he continued with fun. “All these grainy women love him so much that he’s looking out for the kids [and] getting rid of that red dye crap.”
Cramer added Kennedy is “not that unreasonable,” arguing he doesn’t wish to mandate or prohibit vaccines and that he has myriad supporters for his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Trump’s workforce stays cautiously optimistic however notes HELP Committee Chair Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) stays a wild card given his vote to convict Trump in 2021.
“I think RFK kind of gets through it,” a supply near the Trump workforce mentioned. “He can’t drop the balls at these hearings and say something weird and provocative. You don’t want to back them into a corner.”
In the meantime, Patel has maybe garnered probably the most intense scorn from the Democratic facet exterior of Hegseth, with the get together pushing for Republicans to reject his nomination to guide the FBI.
That seems more and more unlikely, although, as Patel has made no deadly errors since his nomination, with Judiciary Committee members anticipating him to face few actual troubles en path to affirmation on the Senate ground.
However Republicans are fast to notice: One main screwup earlier than any of the committees might hurt any of them irreparably.
“Those, obviously, are ones where there are more questions … than there certainly are on some of these other nominees,” Cornyn mentioned about Gabbard and Kennedy. “I’m anxious to have the hearings.”
Alex Gangitano and Rebecca Beitsch contributed.
