The News
Two of US President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees faced confirmation hearings in the Senate Thursday. In front of two separate panels, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel were variously pressed on issues ranging from support for Edward Snowden, links to Syria and Russia, and whether intelligence or law enforcement agencies would be used to persecute the president’s enemies.
During Patel’s hearing for FBI director, the former prosecutor pushed back on Democrats’ concern that he would use the agency for political retribution, denied he held extremist and conspiratorial views, and said he disagreed with the president’s decision to pardon all of the Jan. 6 defendants.
Director of national intelligence pick Gabbard, meanwhile, was questioned about her past affiliations with US adversaries, including Russia and Syria, as well as her support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, whom she once said must be “protected at all costs.”
Patel is widely expected to be confirmed at a full-Senate vote after being recommended by the Judiciary Committee. Gabbard, however, has reportedly yet to convince at least three Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, where just a single opposing Republican could be enough to stop her nomination, Politico reported.
SIGNALS
Distrust of FBI now mainstream Republican politics
The Republican party’s embrace of Kash Patel reflects that “a deep distrust of the FBI has become Republican orthodoxy,” The New York Times wrote. Many Republican lawmakers now echo Trump’s claims that the institution is corrupt and partisan, and that those factors are what led to the agency’s probes into Trump following his first term in office. Many have voiced support for Patel’s call to roll back the agency’s investigative responsibilities, CNN wrote, a stance that threatens the Bureau’s record: The FBI has proven crucial in thwarting major terrorist threats since 9/11 in no small part because the agency’s investigation and law enforcement divisions have worked “seamlessly together,”intelligence journalist Ronald Kessler wrote. Patel’s agenda threatens to sever that collaboration, in turn potentially making the US more vulnerable to attack.
Conservatives hope Gabbard will remake the intelligence community
If confirmed, Tulsi Gabbard vowed to ensure that “faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence” would not guide decision-making, in a nod to the intelligence that led to the Iraq war. Gabbard is expected to apply the DOGE playbook to the intelligence community, one former Trump official wrote in an opinion essay, arguing that Gabbard is “uniquely suited to depoliticize, reform, and downsize the ‘intelligence swamp.’” Gabbard said in a written statement that her team should be “streamlined.” One former intelligence official argued in Foreign Affairs that sweeping cuts would inevitably reduce the intelligence community’s effectiveness, however, and that the new administration’s stance will mean talented officers almost certainly leave regardless.
Foreign allies worry they will lose trust in US intelligence
US intelligence is crucial in confronting global and domestic conflicts, with Washington informing and preparing NATO ahead of the 2022 Ukraine invasion, for example. Yet “any strong intelligence relationship is underpinned by trust,” The Associated Press noted, and many in the foreign intelligence community are worried that the departments under Gabbard and Patel could ultimately undermine global security cooperation. European governments are scrambling to convince Trump that risks to Europe could also threaten the US. Washington is also highly reliant on European intelligence, and “we’ll lose that if we’re no longer considered trustworthy,” said the former US ambassador to Russia.