Hawkish Republicans concerned about Gabbard’s foreign policy record and skepticism of the intel community are keeping their powder dry — for now.
President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence pick, Tulsi Gabbard, has spent recent weeks privately fielding tough questions from Republican senators for her unorthodox views on national security and foreign policy.
But GOP skepticism toward her nomination has yet to materialize into any formal Republican opposition ahead of her confirmation hearing next Thursday, as senators who are still unsure about her fitness for the job remain wary of publicly souring on President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.
Gabbard’s whip count could change in the coming days as the media spotlight grows brighter. For now, Gabbard’s team is confident about where things stand ahead of her hearing. A classified hearing between Gabbard and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee will kick off immediately after.
Gabbard’s backers have spent recent weeks emphasizing that none of the whispered concerns about her background — reported in a string of background-heavy news articles — are translating into staunch opposition to her nomination.
“There is not one GOP Senator on record opposing Lt. Col. Gabbard’s nomination,” Trump transition spokeswoman Alexa Henning told NR in a statement. “In fact, there are many on record including bipartisan members of the Senate Intel Committee who have shown positive support for her nomination and qualifications. She’s met with almost every GOP Senator in the U.S. Senate and Democrats who’ve accepted her invitation to meet,” including Senate Intelligence Committee member Jon Ossoff, (D., Ga.), who is up for reelection in 2026 and has told reporters he’s keeping an open mind on Trump nominees.
But even Senator Senator Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.), who served with her in the U.S. House for years and calls her a “dear” friend, acknowledges Gabbard has more “work” to do to win over some of her skeptics, though he remains confident that she will be confirmed as DNI. “Tulsi would consider me her brother and I consider her my sister,” Mullin National Review on Thursday afternoon, emphasizing that their families are close and he speaks with Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams, on a “regular basis.”
“When everything is really out in the open, I think a lot of concerns will be answered,” Mullin said. “But there’s a lot of work to be done between now and then to make sure that those concerns are ready to be addressed.”
In her private meetings with senators over the past few weeks, Gabbard has emphasized her military background and overseas deployments as key experiences that have shaped her views on foreign policy. Behind closed doors, Republicans and Democrats have spent recent weeks grilling her about her 2017 trip to Syria as a member of Congress, her unorthodox views on intelligence-gathering tools, and her decision to introduce legislation calling for the federal government to “drop all charges against Edward Snowden.”
During their closed-door meetings, many senators have also questioned Gabbard about her 2020 view that the then-president had “no justification whatsoever” in killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani — a move she said at the time constituted an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”
In response to prodding from senator James Lankford on a Wall Street Journal podcast, Gabbard said she now supports reauthorizing Section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – a surveillance authority she opposed while in Congress. Her reversal stunned many senators, considering she and libertarian-leaning Representative Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) introduced legislation with to repeal Section 702 back in 2020.
“A lot of us are sort of baffled about what her positions are on these major issues,” Senator Ron Wyden, (D., Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told National Review. “She came out against FISA fairly early on, and then she did — as part of this whole confirmation process — a big about-face. And now she’s for FISA.”
Despite the whispered concerns, there is no shortage of Republican senators who are publicly enthusiastic about Gabbard’s bid for DNI, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) as well as newer members of the Senate GOP conference like Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.) and Tim Sheehy (R., Mont.). But she can only afford three GOP defections to get confirmed, meaning on-the-fence senators will have all the power heading into next week.
Asked by National Review on Wednesday whether Senate Intelligence Committee members are bracing for fireworks during Gabbard’s classified confirmation hearing, Republican Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) said, “I don’t know.”
“I remain open to the nomination,” the Texas Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said. “My attitude is that the president’s entitled to his team absent extraordinary circumstances, but I can’t predict what’s going to come up during the hearing.”
Quite a few Republican senators are keeping their powder dry heading into the hearing. Senate Intelligence Committee members Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Todd Young (R., Ind.) told reporters this week they have questions for Gabbard that they look forward to asking her about during her hearing. Last week, Republican senator John Curtis (R., Utah) told Politico he needs “more information” about Gabbard before he can support her, and former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is also staying mum on how he’ll vote.
Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee member Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said the wait-and-see approach speaks to a pattern: “I think Republicans have concerns, and they’re being cautious as a result.”
If confirmed, Gabbard will be given sweeping authority to declassify secrets, oversee the country’s vast intelligence apparatus, and brief the president on national security matters. She has taken pains to schedule private meetings with intelligence committee officials in recent weeks to question them about how to approach the job, including former director of national intelligence John Negroponte.
Republicans have a one-seat majority on the Senate Intelligence Committe. There are procedural maneuvers that that committee’s chairman, Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), can use to bring her nomination to the floor if she does not clear the committee, though the optics of not surviving a committee vote could present challenges to her eventual confirmation.
Privately, one on-the-fence GOP senator says it’s entirely possible she will not clear the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“There are real concerns that I have, and a number of my colleagues have right now,” one Republican senator told National Review on Wednesday afternoon. “I would characterize that as enough of my colleagues to prevent the nomination even from going to the floor.” This senator said the recurring concern from Senate Intelligence Committee members, and the Senate Republican conference writ large, has been “her lack of comfort with the authorities that we use in the Intel profession, and that she has expressed a disbelief in Intel products from the very agencies she will be in charge of, or at least reporting findings from.”
Of course, senators who are skeptical of her fitness for the role see eye to eye with Gabbard on some key issues. As National Review reported last month, Gabbard agrees with many senators that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) needs to be a leaner, more efficient operation. And according to a source who has sat in on her closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill, she also shares many senators’ frustration that lawmakers on key national security committees often hear intelligence from press reports before they read it in their own briefings.
Gabbard’s prior skepticism of those intelligence-gathering tools has endeared her to others.
“I think we need some reform,” Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who praised Gabbard’s nomination in these pages last month, told NR this week. “I think that using our broad and incredible surveillance powers on people from other countries is fine, but they shouldn’t be directed against their own people, and that’s why I’ve been supportive of her, and I hope that she does get nominated.” He plans to support her nomination even after she said she plans to support reauthorizing Section 702.
Ahead of next week’s hearing, Mullin points to Gabbard’s military promotions and active TS/SCI clearance as key assets that may help bat away some senators’ concerns about her preparedness and fitness for the role.
“You don’t get that, especially in the service, without being well-vetted,” the Oklahoma senator tells NR of her clearance, while conceding that many of his colleagues still have questions and concerns about votes she took while in the House. “That’s one of the hard things about being a former member, is you’ve taken a lot of positions,” he said, adding that he’s confident she’ll get across the finish line after senators get more clarity about her positions during a formal hearing.