CV NEWS FEED // In what has been described as a major momentum shift, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is now on the precipice of being confirmed as the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI) after the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 9-8 Tuesday to advance her to a full Senate vote. The vote fell along party lines.
During a confirmation hearing last week, Gabbard spoke against intelligence operatives surveilling American Catholic parishes, referencing a controversial FBI memo leaked in 2023 which targeted both “radical traditional” and “mainline” Catholics as potential threats.
During the same hearing, Gabbard also decried U.S. intelligence operations that she said led to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
For weeks, the Democrat-turned-Republican has been considered to have had the hardest path to Senate confirmation of all of President Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet-level positions.
However, after what Axios dubbed a “vibe shift,” leading prediction website Polymarket now gives her near-certain odds of being confirmed by the Senate. Republicans presently hold a majority in the Senate, with 53 seats.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Polymarket gave Gabbard a 98% chance of confirmation. A few days ago, Polymarket gave her only a 50% chance.
Multiple senators who had been considered swing votes have announced they will support Gabbard over the last two days.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, told reporters Monday that she had decided to back Gabbard “after extensive consideration, conversations with her in my office, attending the hearing, questioning her there and listening to her.”
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) February 4, 2025
“I believe she’s committed to strengthening our national security,” the senator added. Collins, a Catholic with a mixed voting record on abortion and other social issues, is widely regarded as one of the Senate’s most moderate Republicans.
Collins has served in the Senate since 1996 and is up for reelection next year. Despite Maine being a Democratic-leaning state, the Republican senator has consistently won reelection, mostly by large margins.
Sen. Todd Young, R-IN, another former swing vote on Gabbard, announced Tuesday that he plans to vote for her as well.
“I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership,” Young wrote on X.
The senator also posted to X a lengthy statement from Gabbard in which she made a series of policy commitments in response to his requests.
I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership. pic.twitter.com/PmYvaP0afQ
— Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) February 4, 2025
Young wrote in a subsequent X post: “I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer.”
“Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security,” he added.
Young decided not to publicly endorse Trump in last year’s presidential election. Trump nonetheless went on to win the senator’s home state of Indiana by 19 points. Young is not up for reelection until 2028.
Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security.
— Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) February 4, 2025
The Bulwark, an anti-Trump publication widely linked to the hawkish neoconservative movement, published a piece in December arguing that Trump is willing to go to “war” to make sure both Gabbard and Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are confirmed by the Senate.
The article quoted an unnamed Trump advisor who allegedly said “if they try to touch Tulsi and Kennedy, then it’s war.”
The Bulwark piece also quoted a second Trump adviser who purportedly echoed a similar sentiment. “If Tulsi or Bobby face real trouble, that’s when Trump will really start to fight,” the advisor said, per The Bulwark. “They represent the challenging of the status quo of the bureaucracy. That’s what MAGA is about.”
Gabbard has served in the U.S. Army for over 20 years and currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve.
As CatholicVote reported last week, “Gabbard has frequently expressed skepticism of U.S. national security talking points, accusing officials of giving surreptitious support to terrorist organizations in order to overthrow foreign regimes.”
Gabbard “served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021,” CatholicVote’s previous report added. “During her Congressional tenure, she represented a deep-blue district in Hawaii, and for several years was considered a rising star within the Democratic Party.”
However, the former rising star went on to leave her former lifelong party in 2022, just over a year after her final term in Congress ended. At the time she said that the Democrats had fallen “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.”
Two years later, she “endorsed Trump for president and appeared with him on the campaign trail on multiple occasions,” CatholicVote went on to note. “Late last year, she joined the Republican Party.”