Washington, DC- Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director of Donald Trump, faced the difficult issues of American legislators in the past position, including her, including the reporter Edward Snowden ( Support of Edward Snowden.
At the confirmation hearing on Thursday, Senators baked Gabad when they visited Syria in 2017, where she met with the then President Bashar Assad.
Gabbard is a former Democratic member of Hawaii, who bluntly opposed intervention foreign policy.
She failed to run for the president in 2020. Two years later, she resigned from the Democratic Party and rejected it as "warm elite group".
Then she began to run for Republican candidates including Trump.
If it is confirmed, Gabbard will become the heads of the American intelligence community consisting of 18 institutions, including FBI and CIA. She will also briefly introduce and provide suggestions on security affairs.
Gabbard is one of the many controversial nominations appointed by Trump.
Gabbard faced the first exam in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. The following are some key gains at the hearing:
Several Democrats among the group members and even some Republicans quoted Gabad's past statement to support Snow Den. Snowden is a former National Security Agency contractor. Documents of large -scale surveillance plan.
In 2020, the US court ruled that Snowden's surveillance (including collecting telephone records) was illegal.
Snowden, who was initially fled to Hong Kong, received asylum in Russia after the US government withdrew his passport.
Gabbard previously called Snowden as a "brave" reporter. In 2020, she sponsored a house resolution and urged the US government to revoke Snowden all charges.
On Thursday, Gabbard positively questioned the position. Democratic Senator Michael Bennet repeatedly asked her if she thought Snowden was a traitor.
The former female member refused to say that. She emphasized that Snowden took a thin line in violation of the law, and she did not fully condemn him while disagreating his behavior.
She said: "The fact is that even if he violates the law, he has released information that reveals serious, illegal and unconstitutional plans."
Gabbard was served in the U.S. military and was still a reserve personnel of the army. He also emphasized that she had never leaked secret information herself.
Earlier on Thursday, Snowden suggested that Gabbard should reject him to ensure her confirmation.
He wrote in social media posts: "Tell them that I have hurt the national security and soft employee." "In DC, this is why loyalty promises."
Tulsi Gabbard will be asked to refuse all the previous support of the reporter as a confirmation condition today. I encourage her to do this. Tell them that I hurt the national security and soft employee. In DC, this is the reason for loyalty promises. pic.twitter.com/z1omohgvdu
-Ti Edward Snowden (@snowden) January 30, 2025
At the hearing, another problem that constantly surfaced was that Gabbard went to Syria and Lebanon in 2017.
Gabbard met with Al-Assad when he called on the United States to resign from the government.
She said: "I asked him about the behavior of his regime, the use of chemical weapons, and the tricky tactics of cruel tactics used for his people."
Gabad also denied that he met with any real party officials in Lebanon.
When asked if it was a good judgment with Al-Assad, Gabbard said yes.
She said: "I believe, whether you are a Congress or the US president.
Gabad said she was mainly concerned about the "extremism" Syrian rebels.
The former female member also attacked the new leader of Syria, consisting of the former rebels, and they overthrew the Assad government in December.
She described Assad's degeneration as "Islamic extremists suddenly took over Syria."
Hayat Tahrir Al-SHAM (HTS), the main rebel group captured last year, has a past relationship with the base organization. HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is now the transition president of Syria.
The United States used to provide rewards for capturing Al-Sharaa, but was canceled after US officials visited him in Damascus in December.
During her opening, Gabut tribed to the president, and the president nominated her, which expanded Trump's statement that because of political reasons, he was the goal of intelligence officials.
She quoted a foreign surveillance order, that is, the authorities monitored Trump's assistants before investigating Trump's campaign and Russia before investigating Trump's campaign in 2016.
She said: "The American people are elected as the president of Donald Trump, not once, but twice."
"However, the opponents of the Federal Investigation Agency and intelligence agencies were politicized to destroy his presidential position and mistaken him into Putin's UP."
She promised to provide "fair" discovery to Trump, saying that "weapons" information could lead to terrible consequences. Gabbard quoted the Iraq invasion led by the United States in 2003, which is based on false reports of large -scale killing weapons with large -scale killing weapons.
"This catastrophic decision has led to thousands of American soldiers, the death of thousands of people in the Middle East, large -scale immigration, unstable and damage to our European allies' security and stability, the rise of ISIS, strengthening the base organization’s base organization’s Rise and other Islamic jihads to strengthen Iran. "She said.