Democratic senators on Thursday tore into Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, over her past support of leaker Edward Snowden.
Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and other panel Democrats condemned Gabbard during her confirmation hearing for sympathizing with Snowden, an intelligence contractor who leaked numerous highly classified programs in 2013 and then fled to Russia.
Warner called Snowden, who is accused of violating the Espionage Act, a “traitor.”
“Until you got chosen by President Trump, you celebrated this guy as brave; you’ve called for him to be pardoned and for his charges to be dropped,” Warner said. “I cannot imagine a director of national intelligence that would say that kind of behavior is okay.”
Gabbard, a former Democratic lawmaker who left the party, argued in 2019 as a Democratic presidential candidate that Snowden’s disclosures had a positive impact by curbing intelligence agencies’ abuses on personal rights. She also cosponsored legislation in 2020 with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), which called for dropping Snowden’s charges.
Gabbard, during the hearing, distanced herself from Snowden by saying repeatedly that he broke the law. She also noted that his actions exposed government surveillance overreach and that she would protect whistleblowers for speaking out.
“I do not agree with or support all the information and intelligence that he released, nor the way in which he did it,” Gabbard said. “The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government, issues that led to serious reforms.”
Snowden, in a social media post on Thursday, predicted inaccurately that Gabbard, “will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today.” He encouraged her to do so. “Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In D.C., that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance,” he said.
Lawmakers in both parties said they considered Snowden a traitor. Gabbard would not say whether she agreed.
Gabbard also took heat from some Republicans, including Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who stressed the gravity of Snowden’s actions. He suggested her support would damage her ability to work with the intelligence community.
“They want to hear that you also believe the same thing, and not just that he broke the law, but that he’s a traitor because they don’t want that to ever happen again,” Lankford said. “Now their lives were at risk — and the programs that they had that were determined lawful all collapsed.”
Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, accused Gabbard of ignoring the House Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan conclusions in 2016 about the damage caused by Snowden’s leak. She acknowledged reading an unclassified summary of the report.
“The conclusion was that the vast majority of these programs that he released had nothing to do with the Fourth Amendment but were enormous compromises of our national security,” he said.
Gabbard countered that she would take responsibility for protecting America’s secrets, as she said she has throughout her career in public service.
