Sen. Lankford Signals Support For Tulsi Gabbard Ahead Of Confirmation Hearings

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) signaled during an interview on Sunday that after some hesitation, he has now firmly decided to back former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) to be President-elect Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence.

Lankford made the remarks during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with Kristen Welker when confronted over his previous concerns about where Gabbard stood on the issue of FISA Section 702, a “critical intelligence collection authority that enables the Intelligence Community (IC) to collect, analyze, and appropriately share foreign intelligence information about national security threats,” according to the U.S. government.

When asked if Gabbard’s assurances were enough for him and whether he was now a “yes” on her being confirmed to the position, Lankford responded: “Yeah, I am.”

“And that was a very important piece for me,” he said. “Obviously she voted against 702 authority. And just to clarify that, that authority is for actually trying to be able to track terrorists overseas. That has nothing to do with American citizens or anything that’s happening in the United States. It is if someone’s planning to attack us overseas, we find out about that.”

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“That’s what 702 authority allows us to be able to do,” he continued. “It is to be able to track international individuals overseas before they come and actually attack us. She voted against that in the House when she was a member of the House of Representatives and then said she wanted changes. She’s now coming in and saying, ‘Those changes have been done.’ Because even since she was in Congress, there have been quite a few changes that we’ve made in Congress to make sure we’re protecting the civil rights of Americans.”

Senator Lankford is a YES on @TulsiGabbard for DNI! ✅ ???? pic.twitter.com/JHHMQofh5c

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 12, 2025