Gabard's evasive maneuver in Snowden Schüren Doubts about their confirmation
Gabard's evasive maneuver in Snowden Schüren Doubts about their confirmation
In 2020, the then democratic congress member tulsi> tulsi Gabard A law that asked the federal government to drop all charges against Edward Snowden. Snowden, a subcontractor of the National Security Agency (NSA), had uncovered the existence of the mass recording of telephone records by American citizens by the NSA before fled to Russia.
Gabard's difficulties during the hearing
On Thursday, Gabard refused to comment on Snowden's actions as travering despite repeated questions from Republican and Democratic MPs of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Your President Donald Trump could continue to endanger her precarious position.
The debate about betrayal and reformal requirements
"Was he a traitor when he took America's secrets, made her public and then fled to China and became Russian citizen?" Asked Republican Senator James Lankford. Gabard, on the other hand, replied: "I concentrate on the future and how we can prevent something like that." She outlined reforms that she wants to implement to prevent future leaks such as those of Snowden, including the sensitization of all employees for the available legal channels for whistleblower.
In similar moments she repeated almost word -like: "Edward Snowden broke the law. But he also published information that revealed serious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that take place in our government and have led to serious reforms." Even with repeated urging of a visibly angry democratic senator Michael Bennet, Gabard refused to give a clear answer.
The challenge of the surveillance debate
The views of gabbard for surveillance and Snowden had already triggered concern among the Republicans in the committee, since it cannot allow a single GOP voting loss to advance in the overall senate. The Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is considered potentially undecided, stated after the hearing that she had not yet decided whether she would support Gabbard. "I want to make a careful decision," said the Senator from Maine.
gabbard was also put under pressure by the democratic deputy chairman, Senator Mark Warner, about her apparently changed attitude to the Section 702 of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This law is viewed by most members of the committee as an important monitoring instrument for the protection of the United States. During her time in the congress, Gabard had pleaded for the full cancellation of the law, but now signals her support for it.
Criticism of Gabard's positions
gabbard found that since their time in the congress, reforms have been made to the law that they led to their support. As Warner asked: "What reforms?" She referred to different changes. Warner reminded her that after the reforms passed in a podcast, she had expressed that she had "worsened" the law. The Republican Senator John Cornyn publicly confronted Gabard and questioned her basic understanding of the Section 702, with some senators noted that she could have confused them with another part of FISA.
The defense against controversial allegations
gabbard was also asked about more controversial topics, including their acceptance of Russian propaganda and their encounter with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She rejected the criticism that her meeting with Assad raised questions about her judgment. In their remarkably partisan opening speech, Gabard criticized “political opponents” and “democratic senators”, who in their opinion stoked anti-Hindu prejudices against them and represented them as “Marionette” by Trump and Russia.
she warned: "What really worries my political opponents is that I refuse to be her puppet." Gabard emphasized that the Americans could be misled about their loyalty and love for their country and compared their situation to that of President Trump, who was chosen with a clear mandate.
Warner's questions regarding Gabard's statements about NATO and chemical weapons in Syria led to further concerns about their qualifications to gain trust that is necessary to take into account sensitivity in terms of information on national security.
Overall, Gabard received the support of the committee chairman, Senator Tom Cotton, who pointed out to her military service and the consistently positive FBI background reviews.