Gabbard says she won't be 'puppet' in sharp hearing for intelligence chief's post

President Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s spy chief faced almost three hours of intense questioning from lawmakers at a feisty and sometimes contentious confirmation hearing Thursday, as Democrats peppered former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard with questions about her experience in the intelligence field and judgment about international affairs.

Ms. Gabbard, a former Democratic House member, strongly defended her record and fitness to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Still, even some Republicans on the majority Republican intelligence committee weren’t wildly enthusiastic about Mr. Trump’s unorthodox pick.

Ms. Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, can’t afford to lose a single Republican vote in the committee and is considered one of the most vulnerable of Mr. Trump’s nominees.

Ms. Gabbard crossed swords with Republicans and Democrats on several issues, including her views about Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine and her past criticisms of Section 702. This controversial intelligence provision allows the government to gather data from foreigners without a warrant by probing their phone calls, emails and text messages.

She blasted a string of what she called failures by the U.S. intelligence community, including false intelligence on weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 Iraq invasion and the letter from dozens of former officials wrongly arguing that a compromising laptop computer belonging to Hunter Biden was part of a Russian disinformation operation just before the 2020 election won by Mr. Biden’s father.

“What really unsettles my political opponents is that I refuse to be their puppet,” Ms. Gabbard said.

Mr. Trump’s triumph in the November election, she said, represented a “clear mandate from the American people to break the cycle of failure and the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community.”

Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, accused her of blaming NATO for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rejecting the intelligence assessment that the Syrian government of Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against rebel forces in the country’s civil war. Ms. Gabbard, as a House member, made a controversial visit to Syria in 2017 to meet with the now-ousted Syrian president.

“It raises serious questions about your judgment,” Mr. Warner said. “It also leads me to question whether you have what it takes to build and develop the trust relationships necessary to give our allies confidence that they can share their most sensitive intelligence with us.”

As director of national intelligence, Ms. Gabbard would oversee 18 federal intelligence agencies and be privy to many of the country’s most sensitive secrets.

Debating Snowden

Republicans and Democrats on the committee noted Ms. Gabbard’s past support for Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who leaked thousands of classified documents about U.S. intelligence gathering programs.

Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, and Sen. Michael F. Bennet, Colorado Democrat, asked Ms. Gabbard whether she considered Mr. Snowden a traitor to the U.S.

She refused to directly label Mr. Snowden, now living in Russia, as a traitor and deflected the question. She acknowledged that Mr. Snowden broke the law and asserted that whistleblowers have legal ways to raise concerns about government overreach.

“This is when the rubber hits the road,” an exasperated Mr. Bennet snapped. “This is when you need to answer the questions of the people whose votes you are asking for.”

Sen. Susan M. Collins, Maine Republican, is considered a possible “no” vote for Ms. Gabbard’s chances to be DNI. She said Mr. Snowden stands out as having done “particularly grave harm” to the nation’s security by revealing secret information, including sources and methods that could jeopardize intelligence agents in the field. Ms. Collins asked whether Ms. Gabbard would recommend a pardon or clemency for Mr. Snowden.

“If confirmed as the DNI, my responsibility would be to ensure the security of our nation’s secrets, and I would not take any actions to advocate for Snowden,” Ms. Gabbard replied.

Ms. Gabbard did have supporters on the intelligence panel, including Republican Chairman Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“I am dismayed by the attacks on Ms. Gabbard’s patriotism and her loyalty to our country,” Mr. Cotton said. “Let me remind everyone, Ms. Gabbard has served in our Army for more than two decades. She has multiple combat tours, and she still wears the uniform to this day.”

Mr. Cotton noted that Ms. Gabbard had undergone five FBI background checks and answered every question, saying she was “clean as a whistle.”

“It’s fine that we have differences of opinions on policies and programs. I suspect that some of my Republican colleagues disagreed with some of Ms. Gabbard’s votes in the House of Representatives,” Mr. Cotton said. “Just as I suspect that some of my Democratic colleagues might criticize [her] statements and actions since she saw the light and left the Democratic Party.”

He acknowledged that some of the nominee’s views might be unconventional. Still, he argued that outside-the-box thinking might have helped the U.S. avoid foreign policy quagmires such as the two decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Maybe Washington could use a little more unconventional thinking,” Mr. Cotton said.

Separately on Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.

The nomination won bipartisan support, but some Democrats said they voted against Ms. Stefanik to protest Mr. Trump’s decision to freeze all U.S. foreign aid programs while a review is conducted. Ms. Stefanik, who emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s strongest supporters on Capitol Hill in recent years, is still a member of the House but would resign if confirmed by the full Senate.

• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.