Top Border Patrol Union Endorses Tulsi Gabbard For Intel Post As She Courts Capitol Hill

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) on Tuesday endorsed Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next director of national intelligence (DNI).

The NBPC endorsed Gabbard in a letter to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the next chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Gabbard, a former Democrat and member of Congress, was tapped by Trump last month in one of his first nominations after winning the November election.

“On behalf of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), I write to express our complete and total support for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), former U.S. Representative and Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard. We have no doubt that Lt. Col. Gabbard is the right person to be the DNI and will work tirelessly to keep our nation safe, just as she has done for the past two decades,” the NBPC said in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire.

The NBPC letter may help Gabbard as she attempts to win over Republican support for her nomination despite her recent arrival to the party. Toward that end, Gabbard began meeting with GOP members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. She plans to finish those meetings on Wednesday with a visit to Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

The NBPC praised Gabbard for her past military service, which the group said exemplifies the traits a competent DNI needs in order to take on the national security challenges of maintaining a secure border.

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“The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), led by the DNI, plays an integral role in our border security by monitoring the potential for these threats to enter our country,” the NBPC letter says. “From transnational criminal organizations operating in North, Central, and South America to foreign terrorist organizations and hostile state actors, these entities and individuals will always attempt to exploit our unsecure borders to further their activities that threaten the American people.”

“In order to adequately confront these threats, the IC must have strong, courageous and competent leadership – that leader is Lt. Col. Gabbard,” the letter says.