Senate Democrats want to slow the roll on Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. intelligence community.
Democrats are insisting on delaying Gabbard’s confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence, saying they still don’t have the full slate of background checks, ethics disclosures and paperwork on a candidate whose overall qualifications have sparked their concern.
“We’re going to insist on these documents before we go forward. I mean, that’s just kind of a nonnegotiable. You can’t do ‘advice and consent’ without it,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said.
“Particularly in the national security context, it’s critical that you have these documents. Maybe it’s not flashy and it’s not viral, but it happens to be how I feel.”
The pushback appears to have successfully delayed a hearing that would normally take place ahead of Trump being sworn into office Jan. 20.
Under President Biden, current Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was the first of the president’s Cabinet officials confirmed in the Senate; the upper chamber supported her with a bipartisan 84-10 vote on Biden’s Inauguration Day.