Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) announced Thursday that he supports former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (R-Hawaii) nomination to serve as director of national intelligence, despite reservations some of his GOP colleagues have over the nominee.
“I support Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination. I’ve been working with her to move towards confirmation, and I look forward to working with her for four years for the badly needed reforms in our Intelligence Community,” Cotton said in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”
Cotton said that Gabbard “understands” that “our intelligence community has grown too bloated, too bureaucratic, and it doesn’t do enough collection of intelligence.”
He said the nation’s intelligence agencies focus “on way too many secondary priorities that are better-served in other parts of the government.”
He praised Gabbard’s record and fit for the job, which entails preparing the president’s daily intelligence brief.
“She has spent more than 20 years in uniform serving our nation. She’s ready to serve again in this position, and I look forward to the hearing today where she can explain her views, her plans, her policies for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,” he said.
Other Republicans on the Intelligence panel, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) haven’t said yet whether they will back Gabbard’s nomination and both have said they have questions for the nominee, especially on her views of expanded surveillance power authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
