“A Lot of Eyerolls”: Tulsi Gabbard Face-Plants With Senate Republicans
Tulsi Gabbard is flopping in her meetings to persuade Senate Republicans to back her unpopular nomination as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, according to a report from The Hill published Friday.“She was proving to be a little shallow, like a House member talking at a hearing and not someone who needs to provide the president’s daily intelligence briefing,” one source familiar with the meetings told The Hill.It seems that in her exchanges, Gabbard had been all sound, no fury. One Senate Republican, who called Gabbard’s meetings “BS sessions,” said that several Republicans were left wanting more substantive responses.“I’ve heard that she’s not very well prepared,” the Republican senator said. “I’ve heard not great things.”A second Senate Republican said she’d elicited “a lot of eyerolls” from senators.One Senate GOP aide, whose member had met with Gabbard, said her disastrous audiences with Senate Republicans “don’t make it easy” for her to gain the support she needs to be confirmed. “She’s got some work to do if she wants the job. The more she meets with serious people, the more they’ll see there’s a competency deficit.”The aide noted to The Hill that Gabbard’s “just not educated” on the kind of work involved in the position but said she was “a capable person who could learn quickly.”Gabbard is “probably more vulnerable than [Pete] Hegseth right now,” another source familiar with the meetings said.Yet another Senate Republican noted that Gabbard’s issues stemmed from having to walk back her position opposing reauthorization of FISA, a foreign spying tool that she would have to defend as head of U.S. national intelligence.Gabbard’s bid for the high-ranking role has faced significant criticism, not only because she lacks experience in the intelligence profession but also because of her penchant for defending some of the world’s most violent autocrats—but of course she and Trump have that in common.Trump transition spokesperson Alexa Henning pushed back on the characterization that Gabbard has been struggling in her meetings on Capitol Hill.“These cowardly anonymous sources are desperately trying to hold on to power, so they hide behind the media to spread these falsities that directly subvert the will of the American people. President Trump won with a mandate for change from the American people, and that’s one of the reasons he nominated Lt. Col. Gabbard for DNI,” Henning said in a statement.
Tulsi Gabbard is flopping in her meetings to persuade Senate Republicans to back her unpopular nomination as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, according to a report from The Hill published Friday.
“She was proving to be a little shallow, like a House member talking at a hearing and not someone who needs to provide the president’s daily intelligence briefing,” one source familiar with the meetings told The Hill.
It seems that in her exchanges, Gabbard had been all sound, no fury. One Senate Republican, who called Gabbard’s meetings “BS sessions,” said that several Republicans were left wanting more substantive responses.
“I’ve heard that she’s not very well prepared,” the Republican senator said. “I’ve heard not great things.”
A second Senate Republican said she’d elicited “a lot of eyerolls” from senators.
One Senate GOP aide, whose member had met with Gabbard, said her disastrous audiences with Senate Republicans “don’t make it easy” for her to gain the support she needs to be confirmed. “She’s got some work to do if she wants the job. The more she meets with serious people, the more they’ll see there’s a competency deficit.”
The aide noted to The Hill that Gabbard’s “just not educated” on the kind of work involved in the position but said she was “a capable person who could learn quickly.”
Gabbard is “probably more vulnerable than [Pete] Hegseth right now,” another source familiar with the meetings said.
Yet another Senate Republican noted that Gabbard’s issues stemmed from having to walk back her position opposing reauthorization of FISA, a foreign spying tool that she would have to defend as head of U.S. national intelligence.
Gabbard’s bid for the high-ranking role has faced significant criticism, not only because she lacks experience in the intelligence profession but also because of her penchant for defending some of the world’s most violent autocrats—but of course she and Trump have that in common.
Trump transition spokesperson Alexa Henning pushed back on the characterization that Gabbard has been struggling in her meetings on Capitol Hill.
“These cowardly anonymous sources are desperately trying to hold on to power, so they hide behind the media to spread these falsities that directly subvert the will of the American people. President Trump won with a mandate for change from the American people, and that’s one of the reasons he nominated Lt. Col. Gabbard for DNI,” Henning said in a statement.
