[Pages S865-S866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF TULSI GABBARD

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am here to ask my colleagues to join 
me in a very simple truth: Tulsi Gabbard should not be the next 
Director of National Intelligence.
  It is a simple, unequivocal truth, and it should be so clear to 
everyone because she is unprepared and unqualified for this role. She 
lacks the confidence and character, and that has been made crystal 
clear in the proceedings so far during her confirmation.
  I urge my colleagues to consider not just her lack of preparedness 
but the existential threat her confirmation would pose within the 
intelligence community that she would have.
  Since the Revolutionary War, our Nation's intelligence professionals 
have served out of the spotlight, never expecting recognition or 
adulation or award. They serve in some of the most demanding, dangerous 
posts, in harm's way and hostile environments, far from their 
families--in many cases, unable to speak to their friends and loved 
ones for long periods of time and unable to tell them where they are or 
what they are doing. Others serve in the Nation's most sensitive 
facilities here in Washington, DC, or elsewhere in this country. Many 
of them constitute the best mathematicians, the best linguists, the 
best analysts, and cryptographic minds in the world.
  These silent sentinels choose to serve because they believe in the 
values and institutions that we should cherish and protect: democracy, 
integrity, the truth. We expect our intelligence professionals to live 
to the standards personified by one of Connecticut's greatest sons, 
Nathan Hale, whose dying regret was that he had but one life to give to 
his country. He served ably and instrumentally during the Revolutionary 
War. He came to be admired and adulated for his patriotism, his 
dedication, his willingness to give his life for his country.
  That is the tradition of our Nation's intelligence community. They 
know they are going into some of the riskiest places on the planet. 
They do it for their country, and they keep it secret. I can't support 
Tulsi Gabbard to be in charge of them. I can't countenance allowing 
someone who is this risky to them and to our country having 
responsibility over their lives and their capacity to contribute to the 
intelligence that is critical to this country avoiding disasters.
  What I have learned in this body is that, very often, the most 
important work of the intelligence community is to avoid disaster--a 
terrorist attack or other kinds of catastrophes--and the country never 
knows about it because it has been avoided. The history of these last 
2\1/2\ decades, since 9/11, is we have avoided some of the greatest 
disasters that might have befallen us because of that intelligence 
community--their competence and their dedication.
  Ms. Gabbard has given a part of her life to the Nation through 
uniformed service, and I respect her service in that role, but she has 
given another part of her life to our adversaries--in service to those 
who would see us become supplicants of ruthless, ruinous powers. Her 
integrity is, at best, suspect. Her judgment is flawed. Her moral 
compass is capricious. That is a nice way of putting it. For the last 
several years, she has made a career of antagonizing the very patriots 
who serve in the community she now wants to lead. Her disdain for the 
intelligence community undermines the public's trust in those very 
Agencies that often serve as our first line of defense and avoid those 
catastrophic attacks on this country or on our allies and partners and 
friends around the world. Those Agencies are not just our first line of 
defense; they are sometimes the line of defense against attacks.
  Make no mistake, we are in an age of strife and conflict that demands 
leaders of principle and determination, leaders who are willing to 
counter the efforts of anyone who would seek to end all of our 
democratic and free people. A revanchist Russia is waging an illegal, 
murderous war against Ukraine. It is hell-bent on establishing itself 
as a disruptor in Europe for the foreseeable future--a disruptor of 
democracies. It is using disinformation through social media and tech 
for spreading lies and dividing democracy, bolstering far-right 
movements that threaten the fabric of our allies.
  Democracy: It isn't just our Nation that is at risk; it is 
democracies around the world that are at risk from Russia. In the Indo-
Pacific, the People's Republic of China is determined to defy the 
international norms that have maintained security in the region for 60 
years. Iranian temerity in the Middle East throws the region 
potentially into an uncontained religious war, stained by sectarian 
zeal, and a potential use of nuclear weapons.
  We must stop a nuclear-armed Iran at every potential cost, and we 
should be siding with our ally there--our great friend and partner, 
Israel--to stop a nuclear-armed Iran. We should support their effort to 
eradicate terrorism--Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis--proxies of Iran.
  The axis of evil that we are seeing now--Russia, China, Iran--is 
moving against us. They are working together, and they are developing 
new methods to threaten the United States and our allies around the 
globe. They are potentially disastrous to our security and

[[Page S866]]

our allies, and the intelligence community stands as a bulwark, seeking 
information sometimes at great cost, developing human sources of 
intelligence, using electronic surveillance--all of it depending on 
secrecy and trust.
  The credibility of this Nation will crater if Tulsi Gabbard is 
confirmed. Ms. Gabbard's confirmation would be a self-inflicted wound.
  I don't believe that conflict is unavoidable or inevitable, but we 
should not do our adversaries' work for them. Confirming Tulsi Gabbard 
puts in place someone who has been proven untrustworthy throughout her 
career, potentially an aide to Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and others. 
They are waiting for this body to give her control of the intelligence 
community.
  Putin's minions call Ms. Gabbard ``dyevuchka nasha''--``our little 
girl.'' I am probably mispronouncing the Russian, but I have got the 
English right--``our little girl.'' She has routinely parroted the 
Kremlin's talking points on the war in Ukraine, castigated NATO, and 
painted Vladimir Putin as a victim. That is exactly how Vladimir Putin 
wants to be depicted--and Mother Russia--to seek the reestablishment of 
the Russian Empire, including Ukraine, potentially Poland, and other 
Eastern European countries. That is his agenda, and Ms. Tulsi Gabbard, 
apparently, is sympathetic.
  As my colleagues in the intelligence community noted, she went as far 
as meeting with President Bashar al-Assad and upending the Obama 
administration's efforts to isolate a vicious dictator. For years, she 
has been one of the most effective apologists for autocracy--exactly 
what we should be eschewing at this moment when autocracy poses such a 
threat around the world. Her comments on podcasts were shared millions 
of times by the Kremlin's media arm in Africa, South America, and Asia. 
She is a star but not in a good way. She is a star for our adversaries, 
our enemies, and others who mean us harm.
  She is either complicit in Putin's machinations or completely unable 
to distinguish fact from fiction. Either one makes her unqualified for 
this highly sensitive and critically important role. We can't let her--
the proverbial fox--into the henhouse. We can't let her into a position 
that demands character, integrity, and sound judgment.
  We can't let her be confirmed. I ask my colleagues to join with me in 
saying no to Tulsi Gabbard.
  There are other confirmations that we have opposed. There are other 
individuals whom I have said are unqualified for positions of high 
trust in the President's Cabinet.
  There is a general deference that should be paid to the President in 
choosing his team, but this position is one of the most critical in 
sensitivity and importance, demanding the highest trust and 
credibility. It should not be occupied by Tulsi Gabbard.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in saying and voting no.
  I yield the floor to my great colleague from the State of 
Massachusetts, Senator Warren.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Lummis). The Senator from Massachusetts.

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