Cnn
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In 2020, member of the Democrat Congress Tulsi Gabbard has introduced legislation calling on the federal government to abandon all accusations against Edward Snowden, the entrepreneur of the National Security Agency who, in 2013, revealed the existence of the Bulk collection of American telephone recordings by the NSA before to flee in Russia.
Thursday, she refused under a persistent issue by republican and democratic legislators on the Senate Intelligence Committee To say if she now believed that Snowden’s actions were a traitor.
Gabbard Repeated dodges During his audience on the appointment, to become the director of national intelligence of President Donald Trump, could have more jeopardized an appointment which already seemed to be on the edge of a knife.
“Was he a traitor when he took American secrets, released them in public and then run to China and became a Russian citizen?” Asked the republican senator James Lankford in a long line of questions that described the broad sense of the intelligence community that Snowden’s actions were betraying.
“I focus on the future and how we can prevent something like it happens,” said Gabbard. She sought to establish reforms that she would undertake to prevent future leaks from the Snowden scale, including “ensuring that each person in the labor market knows the legal channels at their disposal”.
At other times, she gave the same almost word for word, an answer that suggests that she always sees value in her actions: “Edward Snowden has violated the law,” she said. But, she said, “he too, even if he has violated the law, published information that has exposed blatant, illegal and unconstitutional programs that occur within our government which led to serious Reforms. ”
Even when he supported several times for a response yes or not by a democratic senator visibly angry Michael Bennet, Gabbard refused in a calm and stabilized manner to give one.
Gabbard’s opinions on surveillance – and Snowden – had already disturbed the Republicans in the Committee, where she cannot afford to lose even a single voting of the GOP if she wants to go to the full Senate.
Lankford told journalists later Thursday that he was “a little surprised” by Gabbard’s response to Snowden at his confirmation audience, and he warned that it had raised “a lot of questions”.
“I thought it was going to be an easy softball issue, in fact,” said the Oklahoma Republican.
Pressed if this is problematic for his confirmation, Lankford said: “I think there were a lot of questions afterwards, yes.”
Gop Susan Collins, considered a potentially wobbly vote, said shortly after the hearing that she had not yet decided if she would support Gabbard.
The Maine Republican told journalists later Thursday evening that she was “happy” about Gabbard’s answers to her questions, pointing to Gabbard saying that she would not recommend sorry for Snowden.
Alluding to the central role that his opinions on surveillance are likely to play in his success or his failure at the level of the committee, Gabbard was also pressed by the Democratic vice-president, Senator Mark Warner, among others, on an apparent subject that she made on her on her seen from article 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The law is considered by most of the committee legislators as a critical surveillance tool to protect the United States from terrorism – but as a democratic member of the congress, Gabbard had called to his repeal, but during meetings at Looked with Senate legislators on recent legislators in the recent weeks, she reported her support for her use.
Gabbard said that reforms had been made to the law since his time at the Congress which had led him to support the law; Warner pressed it: “What reforms?”
“There are a number of reforms-” she said. Warner stressed that after the reforms have already been adopted, she told Podcaster Joe Rogan that the reforms had aggravated the “worse” law.
Republican senator John Cornyn seemed to question her publicly about his basic understanding of article 702; Several sources familiar with its closed doors meetings with the legislators before its confirmation said that some senators declared that it seemed to confuse article 702 and another part of the FISA, title I, which had been used to monitor the Trump campaign campaign, raising issues about issues about issues on if she understood one of the most important supervisory authorities in the government.
“What would it be used to establish a probable cause for a judge in order to obtain a mandate?” Asked Cornyn, referring to a debate on the question of whether a mandate should be required for the FBI to seek the assets of article 702 for the information of the Americans.
“It’s not for me to say,” said Gabbard.
“Do you know? What are the probable elements of cause and if it is a practical and achievable solution?” Cornyn in a hurry.
In his prepared opening declaration, Gabbard specifically declared that the FISA title I was used to monitor the page.
Gabbard was also questioned – and defended against – some of the most sensational allegations against her, including statements of criticism that she publicly adopted Russian propaganda positions on the opinions of the United States. She sought to criticize a controversial meeting of 2017 with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad raised questions about his judgment.
In a remarkably partisan declaration of opening for a candidate to direct the American intelligence community, Gabbard has targeted “political opponents” and “Democratic senators” who, according to her, had feminine anti-Hindu fanaticism against her ties With a shot in bangs the Hare Krishna movement and painted it as a “puppet” from Trump, Russia and others.
“The fact is what really troubles my political opponents, I refuse to be their puppet,” said Gabbard.
“I want to warn the Americans who look at home: you can hear lies and displays that defy my loyalty and my love for our country,” she said. “They used the same tactic against President Trump and failed. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and a change of change. »»
At one point, she told Republican Senator Jerry Moran that she was “offended” by a question he had asked if Russia “would get a pass in your mind or your heart or in a political recommendation that you would do.
Warner pressed Gabbard on the statements in which she “blamed NATO for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in Russia” and “rejected the conclusion that Assad used chemical weapons in Syria, although he It is the unanimous evaluation of the DOD, the State Department and the IC of the administration of the time. “”
“It brings me to ask me if you can develop the confidence necessary to give our allies the confidence they can share their most sensitive intelligence with us,” said Warner. “Make no mistake, if they stop sharing this intelligence, the United States will be less safe.”
Warner wondered if Gabbard had the “qualifications to comply with the standards established by law”.
Gabbard obtained the approval of the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tom Cotton, who underlined his military service file and stressed that five checks of the FBI history was “clean as a whistle”.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer of CNN contributed to this report.