Tulsi Gabbard is trying to explain her past support for Edward Snowden, including her push to pardon the national security leaker, to a tough crowd: members of the Senate Intelligence Committee considering her confirmation.
When she was still in the House, Gabbard introduced a resolution calling for all charges to be dropped against Snowden. And she urged President-elect Trump at the end of his first term to pardon people who “exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state,” in commenting on another post specifically mentioning Snowden.
That is not the type of rhetoric you hear on Snowden from members of Congress’s two intelligence committees.
“I don’t think Edward Snowden is a patriot by any means. He’s a traitor to his own nation,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Gabbard appears to have made headway in recent days, including by shifting her position on a warrantless surveillance program that allows spying on noncitizens when they are abroad – a controversial measure as it can sweep up communications with Americans in the process.
In private meetings with lawmakers, she’s similarly sought to assure them by saying she didn’t feel Snowden had a good route to share his concerns – an explanation eliciting mixed reactions from lawmakers.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) office wouldn’t comment on Gabbard’s position on Snowden, who he has said should “rot in jail.”
Snowden fled to Russia after leaking thousands of National Security Agency documents showing the bulk collection of Americans’ communications data – a move exacerbating criticism from intelligence leaders who saw his leaks as inexcusable.
“Her concern was that there was no way for someone to be able to be a whistleblower,” Lankford said. “But we do need to be able to secure documents [and] allow people to have a better path to be able to challenge things they see as inappropriate, but not do that – not actually go to the Russians and risk sources and methods.”
“It was helpful to be able to hear the context on it,” he added, before reiterating his own criticism of Snowden.
“She was able to answer the question. She was able to go through and say that there’s better protections, a better way to be able to do that, to allow people to be able to have that internal conversation,” he said, adding that “she felt like at that time, years ago” there was not.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the explanation.
“She’s full of s–t,” he said.
“Look, she’s doing everything that she can to try to get the next glittery job and demonstrating her complete lack of consistent principle,” he added, saying the shift on the foreign spying program shows “her principles are negotiable, to say the least.”
Himes also disagreed with Gabbard’s take on whistleblowers being stymied, saying Snowden had plenty of options for raising his concerns without leaking national security secrets.
“It’s important to remember that there were legitimate whistleblowing routes and lots of other routes that Edward Snowden could have taken that would have been consistent with preserving important secrets for the country. He chose not to take any of those routes. He chose to flee to the most appalling totalitarian regime on the planet,” Himes said.
“That speaks volumes, right? I mean, I know how people inside the [intelligence community] would feel about somebody who’s defending that behavior. They would hate that.”
Though Cotton’s (R-Ark.) office wouldn’t comment for this story, the senator hasn’t been shy about his take on Snowden, or how he should be punished.
“Edward Snowden was an egotistical serial liar and traitor whose unauthorized disclosures of classified information have jeopardized the safety of Americans and allies around the world. Snowden’s close and continual contact with Russian intelligence services speak volumes. He deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life,” Cotton said in 2016 when the House Intelligence Committee released a report analyzing the damage done by Snowden.
Cotton praised Gabbard, however, when she announced she had changed her position on the foreign spying program, an intelligence tool governed by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Last week she called the program a “vital national security tool” – a position in line with national security leaders on both sides of the aisle who urged its reauthorization earlier this year.
It’s a key commitment, as Section 702 will lapse in April of 2026, and intelligence lawmakers are sure to want someone who will be an advocate for the tool when the matter again comes before Congress.
“Tulsi Gabbard has assured me in our conversations that she supports Section 702 as recently amended and that she will follow the law and support its reauthorization as DNI,” Cotton said in a statement last week, a positive outward sign for Gabbard’s confirmation process after a series of rocky meetings in December first reported by The Hill.
A source close to Gabbard said her latest comments to lawmakers reflect a shift in whistleblower protections since Snowden leaked documents in 2013. And while Snowden revealed documents on a different program, Gabbard has been reassured by reforms to how Section 702 can be used, they said.
“Lt. Col. Gabbard made these statements almost 10 years ago and there have been changes and updates to both whistleblower protection for contractors- which was a concern of hers – so if a member of the [intelligence community] needs to raise these concerns there are many avenues to choose from and not break the law,” the source said.
“There’s also been updates to FISA with concerns to Fourth Amendment protections that she supports and looks forward to seeing how those have been implemented in practice as DNI.”
Gabbard has made other controversial comments sure to be weighed by the panel. She met with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after he was accused of using chemical weapons on his own people, and she’s parroted some Russian narratives on their war with Ukraine.
Democrats also successfully pushed to delay her hearing after they said they were unable to get her full background check and paperwork.
But her position on Snowden raised questions about how she will handle one of the most basic tenets of the intelligence community – keeping secrets secret.
It’s clear though that those on the committee still have questions about her stance on Snowden.
“That’s a line of inquiry I want to continue,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the panel.
“I think Mr. Snowden was a traitor. I know she introduced legislation for a pardon. Some of her responses as she goes through this process changed a little bit., but I’ve got more questions on it.”
