Gabbard grilled over Snowden comments during Senate confirmation hearing

Tulsi Gabbard’s past support for former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden dominated Thursday’s public hearing for her to be the country’s next spy chief and escalated what was already expected to be a tough confirmation fight.

Multiple Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s pick to be Director of National Intelligence, about past remarks where she called Snowden a “brave” whistleblower and pressed if she believes he is a traitor for leaking a cache of top-secret files to the media in 2013 about the National Security Agency’s surveillance efforts.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii said Snowden “broke the law” but also exposed “illegal and unconstitutional programs.” She refused to call him a traitor, a position that irritated members on both sides of the aisle as the hearing wore on.

Tulsi Gabbard will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today. I encourage 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. pic.twitter.com/Z1OmOHgvdU

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 30, 2025

In the most intense exchange, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) chided Gabbard over her stance.

“This is where the rubber meets the road. This is when you need to answer the questions of the people whose votes you're asking for to be confirmed as the chief intelligence officer of this nation,” he said. “Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America? That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high.”

During a brief round of follow-up questions, Bennet asked: “Why is he being treated like a folk hero by you, instead of the traitor that he was?”

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), a potential swing vote on the committee, similarly asked if Snowden betrayed the trust of the American people and if he harmed national security. Gabbard, who in 2020 introduced a resolution that would have pardoned Snowden provided certain caveats were met, again stopped short of calling him a traitor.

Snowden has lived in Russia since 2013 after he fled the U.S. He still faces U.S. criminal charges. Trump floated the idea of pardoning him during his first term.

Gabbard’s evasiveness likely will complicate her already tricky confirmation. She has been viewed as an unorthodox choice to oversee the country’s 18 spy agencies given her lack of intelligence experience and past controversial statements on national security issues, like the war in Ukraine, where she has parroted the talking points of foreign adversaries.

Gabbard has also come under bipartisan scrutiny over her opposition to a major foreign spying tool while serving in Congress. As a member, she put forward legislation to repeal Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows collection of foreign calls without a warrant. 

However, she reversed her position after being tapped by Trump. 

“My actions in legislation in Congress were done to draw attention to the egregious civil liberties violations,” Gabbard told the panel and praised some of the reforms made in the last FISA reauthorization bill.

Sen. Mark Warner (VA), the panel’s top Democrat, said he appreciated her “confirmation conversion” on 702 but said “I don’t find your change of heart credible.”

In her written answers to the committee, Gabbard said she supports a warrant requirement for analysts to search the massive 702 database for data on U.S. persons, but Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) noted that most panel members opposed such a mandate.

Gabbard said that if confirmed she would be in a better position to offer an assessment. She said she would also have to come back to lawmakers before she could weigh in on the expanded definition in the last 702 renewal bill of “electronic communication service providers” that can be compelled to furnish information to the government.

She said she opposes government mandates on tech firms to create backdoors for law enforcement to bypass encryption protections.

“These backdoors lead down a dangerous path that can undermine Americans' Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties,” Gabbard said.

At the end of the hearing it was clear that Gabbard had done nothing to assuage Democratic doubts about her ability to lead the clandestine community.

On Snowden, “you won't back off of ‘brave,’ you won't back off your legislation, you won't call him a traitor,” Warner said, noting the session was being watched globally as well as by members of the intelligence community.

“I don't know how they're going to have confidence that if, under your leadership, somebody else stepped out, that you wouldn't take the same position that you've not walked away from on Mr. Snowden.”

Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) said he wanted the panel to hold a vote on Gabbard’s nomination “as soon as possible.”