Tulsi Gabbard clears first key test vote in Senate on DNI nomination

Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s pick to become director of national intelligence, cleared a key procedural hurdle on Monday to advance her nomination toward a final Senate vote.

The Republican-led chamber, requiring only a simple majority, voted 52-46 to clear a procedural step and set the stage for confirmation later in the week. 

Gabbard’s advancement comes despite a heated confirmation hearing in which senators on the intelligence panel dove into her record from the eight years she spent in Congress, dissecting her previous comments about a range of subjects including infamous Natioanl Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the now-defunct Assad regime in Syria, and her previous criticism of a key law for intelligence collection.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle gave Gabbard more than a half-dozen chances to withdraw her past support of Snowden, who leaked classified documents and escaped prosecution by moving to Russia, but she didn’t take them.