U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine questioned President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard on infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden amid her other controversies during Thursday’s nomination hearing.
Gabbard, a U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and former Hawaii congresswoman who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 before joining the Republican Party, was already under scrutiny ahead of Thursday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing for her past meeting with then-Syrian president Bashar Assad, comments on Russia and stances on surveillance.
Gabbard promised senators she would remain objective and “leave her personal views at the door” if confirmed as the director of an office that oversees 18 intelligence agencies.
Collins, a Republican who voted against Trump’s since-confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and is up for reelection in 2026, is viewed as a swing vote given the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 9-8 split in favor of Republicans. Donald Trump Jr. has said any Republican who opposes Gabbard deserves a primary, which Collins has not faced since she was first elected to the Senate in 1996.
Collins expressed concerns about Gabbard ahead of Thursday, but her questioning did not clearly reveal how she may vote, while the questions from King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, made clear he will likely oppose Gabbard.
Here are three lessons from Gabbard’s hearing.
Gabbard sought to woo Collins in her opening statement.
Gabbard knows Collins could either sink or secure her nomination, and she used her opening statement to note Collins helped write the 2004 legislation to create the director of national intelligence position in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Apart from mentioning Collins, Gabbard said intelligence agencies “abused” their power under former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and warned Americans watching Thursday’s proceedings that they “may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country.”
Collins and King focused on Snowden.
There was plenty of material for the senators to use in pressing Gabbard on Thursday, but Collins and King largely used their allotted five minutes to focus on Gabbard’s stances on Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified documents in 2013 that revealed mass U.S. surveillance programs. Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to Snowden in 2022 to protect him from U.S. prosecution, and Snowden has either been hailed over the years as a brave whistleblower or as a traitor.
Gabbard urged Trump to issue a pardon to Snowden in 2020, when she and then-U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, also introduced a resolution calling for the government to drop all charges against Snowden.
Multiple senators asked Gabbard if she thinks Snowden is a traitor, to which Gabbard deflected by saying only that he “broke the law.” When Collins asked Gabbard if she would support a pardon for Snowden, Gabbard replied she would “not take actions to advocate for any actions related to Snowden.”
Collins also asked whether Gabbard supports allowing people with access to government secrets to “make their own decisions regarding whether that information should be publicly disclosed,” even if that causes “tremendous harm.”
Gabbard said she would not support that after veering into criticizing the Obama administration for using the 1917 Espionage Act to prosecute more people for leaking sensitive information than all previous presidential administrations combined.
King pressed Gabbard on why she introduced the 2020 proposal to essentially pardon Snowden and whether she was aware of a 2016 bipartisan intelligence report on Snowden’s actions that had a section related to the “damage” Snowden did. King used a second round of questioning later in the hearing to say he is “concerned about your apparent lack of interest in the scope of Edward Snowden’s traitorous activities.”
Gabbard alternated between saying she did not recall if she read that report before filing her resolution but that she was at least aware of it while otherwise telling King she “would take seriously the need to protect our nation’s secrets.”
Collins also asked about Hezbollah but avoided harder questions.
Collins did not focus on Gabbard’s 2017 visit with Assad, Syria’s since-deposed dictator, but asked Gabbard about “speculation in the press that you met with Hezbollah,” which the U.S. has designated as a Lebanese terrorist group affiliated with Iran.
U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly intercepted a call between Hezbollah officials in which they said Gabbard met with “the boss” during that 2017 trip to Syria and Lebanon, but Gabbard has denied that while acknowledging meeting with Lebanese officials close to the terror group.
“Have you ever knowingly met with any members, leaders or affiliates of Hezbollah?” Collins asked Thursday.
“No, and it is an absurd accusation,” Gabbard replied.
Collins concluded her questioning with an easier one for Gabbard on how she would “refocus” the intelligence community on combatting international terror threats. Gabbard replied it signifies the need for her nominated position to exist and to “get ahead of these threats.”
