Gabbard Wins Over Key Votes, Within One Vote Of Advancing Toward Senate Confirmation

The move toward advancing Tulsi Gabbard out of the Senate Intelligence Committee and to a full Senate vote on her confirmation as director of national intelligence is gaining steam as GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana have now said they will vote for her.

“American intelligence officers around the globe deserve our respect and support. I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership,” Young told POLITICO Tuesday morning.

“I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer,” he continued. “Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security.”

Young had expressed concerns about Gabbard’s attitude toward Edward Snowden, having told her during last week’s hearings: “I think it would befit you, and be helpful to the way you are perceived by members of the intelligence community if you would at least acknowledge the greatest whistleblower in American history, so-called, harmed national security by breaking the laws of the land.”

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, quit his job in 2013 and took hundreds of thousands of documents that revealed details of American foreign and domestic surveillance programs.

“In advance of their partial publication by The Guardian and the Washington Post, he fled to Hong Kong — a city controlled then as now by the People’s Republic of China,” Jeffrey Blehar noted. “There, he sought to ingratiate himself with the Chinese Communists by revealing IP addresses for computers in China and Hong Kong that were being monitored by the NSA. Keeping Snowden was impossible; though already our fiercest global competitor in 2013, China was unwilling to declare itself so openly hostile. Snowden was thus allowed by the Chinese to depart for Moscow, where he remains to this day.”

Gabbard apparently allayed Young’s concerns with a letter in which she stated:

I commit to holding accountable and seeking justice against any Intelligence Community employee, contractor or subcontractor from making an unauthorized disclosure of any intelligence program. I will not advocate for any protections which should only be extended to lawful and legitimate whistleblowers to any Intelligence Community employee, contractor or subcontractor who makes or facilitates an unauthorized disclosure of any intelligence program. … I commit to not making any recommendation in a personal or professional capacity regarding the legal standing of Edward Snowden to the President of the United States or the Attorney General of the United States.

New: Sen. Todd Young spoke a lot to VP Vance about Gabbard and wanted assurances from her in writing on Snowden, whistleblowers and 702 before supporting her as DNI.

Here’s the letter she wrote him ahead of her committee vote today pic.twitter.com/kvAhgi9Hhj

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) February 4, 2025

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas is the only Republican senator on the Intelligence Committee who has not yet stated that he will vote for Gabbard.