Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence

WASHINGTON — The US Senate confirmed former Rep.Tulsi Gabbard as President Trump’s spy chief Wednesday, elevating the ex-Democrat and privacy hawk to a cabinet-level position in the Republican administration.The upper chamber voted 52-48 to confirm Gabbard, with Sen.

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joining all 47 Democrats in opposition.The Army Reserve lieutenant colonel’s ascent to serve as a principal adviser to Trump on intelligence gathered by 18 separate agencies comes after combative hearings in the Senate.“I think it’s fair to say that Ms.Gabbard’s nomination has generated a bit more interest and attention than do most nominees,” acknowledged Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at the start of her confirmation hearing last month.Cotton emphasized that he had combed through multiple FBI background checks, questionnaires and other documents and found Gabbard’s record was “clean as a whistle” — before accusing Democrats of questioning her “patriotism” and judgment.Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had even “smeared” her as a “Russian asset,” Cotton noted.But the GOP chairman said he hoped that Gabbard’s tenure would return the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to its core mission of doing “real intelligence work,” cut its bureaucratic functions and slim down its staff.“For too long, faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence has led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security,” Gabbard told senators.

“The most obvious example of one of these failures is our invasion of Iraq based upon a total fabrication or complete failure of intelligence.”“President Trump’s re-election is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure, end the weaponization/politicization of the [intelligence community], and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation,” she added.The four-term congres...