GOP Senators Who Could Block Tulsi Gabbard’s Confirmation Took Huge Checks From Defense Industry

Senate GOP hawks who receive large sums from the defense industry could be mobilizing to tank one of President-elect Donald Trump’s national security nominees.

Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, nominated by Trump to helm the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, could face opposition from Senate Republicans with hawkish views on national security over her beliefs on Ukraine and government surveillance powers. Though a considerable number of Trump-aligned senators have endorsed Gabbard, citing her decades-long military service and commitment to reforming the country’s intelligence agencies that have been frequently weaponized against the president-elect, GOP senators whose national security views appear to sharply diverge from Gabbard’s have mostly refrained from supporting her nomination.

The uproar from the Uniparty over @TulsiGabbard’s nomination to be Director of National Intelligence simply proves she’s the perfect choice.

I look forward to voting in favor of her confirmation. https://t.co/PGfiBUa8gr

— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) December 3, 2024

Gabbard will begin meeting with Republican lawmakers next week, Alexa Henning, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation.She can afford to lose the support of just three Republican senators, assuming all Democrats oppose her nomination and Vice President-elect JD Vance casts a tie-breaking vote to secure her confirmation.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee — the panel that will process Gabbard’s nomination — has not taken a public position on the former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, but promised to move quickly on Trump’s cabinet nominees during an interview with Fox News.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a notable Senate GOP defense hawk, endorsed Gabbard in an X post following Trump’s announcement of her nomination, calling her “extremely bright and capable.”

Gabbard, who recently joined the GOP and served as a surrogate for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, is a vocal critic of U.S. support for Ukraine and the national security apparatus’ spying powers. She is also an avowed opponent of the “military industrial complex,” which she has accused of profiting off the war in Ukraine.

Biden’s decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine shows they don’t care about the Ukrainian people; these munitions will lead to Ukrainian casualties caused by undetonated bomblets for decades to come. This is the same cold, calculating, callousness we saw in Madeleine Albright… pic.twitter.com/BlWsuvf3sk

— Tulsi Gabbard 

 (@TulsiGabbard) July 9, 2023

A significant cohort of Senate Republicans, despite Gabbard and the president-elect’s opposition, support the United States contributing additional military aid to Ukraine and preserving the government’s warrantless spying authorities.

On April 19, 30 GOP senators backed the reauthorization of the government’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) Section 702 authority, which allows for warrantless surveillance under certain conditions against Americans. Four days later, 29 Republican senators voted with their Democratic counterparts to send more than $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Gabbard has been subject to personal attacks from Democratic lawmakers over her views on the Russia-Ukraine war. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz dubbed Gabbard, who is still serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, a “Russian asset” and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth concluded Gabbard is “compromised” and “couldn’t pass a background check.” The New York Times published an article following Gabbard’s nomination with the title, “How Tulsi Gabbard Became a Favorite of Russia’s State Media.”

Members of the Senate GOP conference have reportedly bought into some of these allegations, according to a report from The Hill. Wasserman-Schultz and Duckworth’s offices did not respond to the DCNF’s inquiries about providing evidence to support their claims questioning Gabbard’s loyalty to the United States.

“Just as the Democrats and the Washington Elite see President Trump as a threat to their unchecked power, they see Congresswoman Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard as a threat as well,” Henning told the DCNF. “As DNI Director she will champion our constitutional rights and put an end to using intelligence agencies as weapons against the American people.”

The following GOP senators with hawkish views on U.S. foreign policy could stand in the way of Gabbard’s confirmation, according to a DCNF review of Senate Republicans’ statements on Gabbard’s nomination to serve as Trump’s chief intelligence officer and their past support for Ukraine and FISA.

Sen. Mitch McConnell

Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell could pose an obstacle to Gabbard’s confirmation given the former Senate Republican leader’s interventionist foreign policy views and reported opposition to former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination to serve as Trump’s attorney general.

“President Trump’s got the right policies. Clearly, the American people have his back. The thing that’s holding us back on the right is the established order of the donor class Republicans that are manifested in the Senate, “Steve Bannon told Puck in an interview published on Nov. 26. “What’s going to hold us back is Mitch McConnell.”

“It’s pretty obvious that McConnell has staying power, and we have to confront that,” Bannon added.

McConnell has been an influential proponent of sending military aid to Ukraine and the reauthorization of FISA. The defense sector contributed more than $150,000 to McConnell’s campaign committee and leadership PAC between 2019 and 2024, according to OpenSecrets.

McConnell will be the incoming chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee, tasked with appropriating money for the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies. He has promised to spend the remainder of his time in the Senate pushing back against “isolationism,” an oblique reference to Gabbard and Trump’s “America First” foreign policy worldview.

“Members of my own party now contend that, somehow, the stability of markets and the deterrence of adversaries are achievable without tending to the requirements of American hard power,” McConnell said during a keynote speech at an American Enterprise Institute event that celebrated the Kentucky senator’s foreign policy views on Nov. 12. “Confronting this particular challenge is where I now place my focus. Shoring up American primacy, combatting the dangerous tendency toward isolationism, and urgently restoring America’s hard power: this is how I will spend a great deal of the time I have left in public life.”

Sen. Thom Tillis

Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis could also pose a challenge for Gabbard if she fails to receive a majority of votes from senators who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Tillis has not given Gabbard an explicit endorsement, but has pledged to vote in support of her confirmation — and all other Trump nominees — if they receive a favorable vote in the committees that process their nominations before a confirmation vote takes place on the Senate floor.

“Senator Tillis has been focused on reviewing the nominees in his committees of jurisdiction and making sure they get fair hearings, and he is working on making sure Pam Bondi and Kash Patel get through the Senate Judiciary Committee and get confirmed on the floor,” Daniel Keylin, a Tillis spokesperson, told the DCNF in a written statement. “Senator Tillis trusts his Republican colleagues to ensure that all of President Trump’s nominees get a fair confirmation process, and any nominee that gets a favorable vote out of committee will get the Senator’s vote on the floor.”

Tillis previously said he would not support any Trump national security nominee that does not support Ukraine.

“I’m going to have to have a very compelling story for anybody who’s going to influence policy in Ukraine,” Tillis told the Wall Street Journal in November in response to an inquiry about whether he will support Gabbard’s nomination. “At DNI, I don’t know if that’s her or not, but when I get into the nomination process, I have no intention of supporting anybody who equivocates on support for Ukraine.”

Tillis has voted to send military aid to Ukraine and reauthorize FISA. His campaign committee and leadership PAC received nearly $75,000 from the defense sector between 2019 and 2024, according to OpenSecrets.

Vance criticized Tillis’ support for providing military aid to Ukraine last year, stating “With all due respect to Thom, he’s not living in reality.”

Tillis is up for reelection in 2026 in what is likely to be a competitive contest in a battleground state against a Democratic opponent and could also face a primary challenger from the right.

Sen. Susan Collins

Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a consistent supporter of Ukraine and the government’s warrantless surveillance powers, is noncommittal on Gabbard’s confirmation, telling reporters that her nomination “illustrates the importance of a full background check, a public hearing, and the constitutional role of the Senate.”

The Maine Republican, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared to oppose Gaetz’s nomination and has also not taken a position on Pete Hegseth, Trump’s DoD pick, whose confirmation is also facing considerable headwinds.

Collins traveled to Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky in May 2022 as part of a congressional delegation led by McConnell. The defense industry has doled out more than $300,000 to Collins’ campaign committee and leadership PAC between 2019 and 2024, according to Open Secrets.

Collins is up for reelection in 2026 in her quest for a 6th Senate term and is the only Republican senator who represents a state that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a frequent Trump critic who opposed Gaetz’s nomination, could also vote against Gabbard’s confirmation to serve as DNI director.

Murkowski has voted to send military aid to Ukraine and to reauthorize FISA. She traveled to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky in April 2023 alongside Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Kelly of Arizona.

The Alaska Republican has also voiced confidence in Zelensky’s leadership, a significant departure from Gabbard who has criticized the Ukrainian president’s alleged crackdown on Ukrainian civil society during the country’s war against Russia.

Met with President Zelensky this morning with a bipartisan group of senators in the Capitol. Zelensky articulated his plan to prevail in the war that Putin has waged against Ukraine. I have great admiration for not only President Zelensky, but the people of Ukraine as they… pic.twitter.com/MgftTgi0fZ

— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) September 26, 2024

The defense sector contributed more than $200,000 to Murkowski’s campaign committee and leadership PAC between 2019-2024, according to OpenSecrets.

Sen. John Cornyn

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a GOP defense hawk and proponent of providing military aid to Ukraine, notably omitted Gabbard’s name during a speech where he appeared to endorse four of Trump’s defense and national security nominees, including Hegseth.

Cornyn, who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Punchbowl News that he would like to ask Gabbard about her views on Russia while acknowledging that she is a “patriot.” Cornyn’s office declined to provide details about whether the Texas Republican is planning to meet with Gabbard before her confirmation hearing that has yet to be scheduled.

Cornyn has characterized a Ukrainian victory as “a victory for all who value freedom” and accused his critics “pushing Russian propaganda” following his vote in support of sending additional military aid to Ukraine in April.

The defense industry has contributed more than $260,000 to Cornyn’s campaign committee and leadership PAC over the last five years, according to OpenSecrets.

Cornyn is up for reelection in 2026 and is likely to face a competitive primary challenger from the right.

Sen. Mike Rounds

Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is also noncommittal on Gabbard’s nomination and appeared to question Trump’s decision to nominate the former Hawaii congresswoman during an interview with reporters.

“I start out saying, OK, this is an individual the president wants on his team,” Rounds told Punchbowl News on Nov. 22. “But now let’s talk about information that maybe the president didn’t have, or information that comes up, and at that stage do we advise the president to look elsewhere or do we offer our consent?”

Rounds recently defended FBI Director Christopher Wray following Trump’s decision to replace him with Kash Patel, who served in multiple positions during the first Trump administration.

Rounds also criticized the idea of ending the Russia-Ukraine war in a negotiated settlement during a speech in September at the Halifax Security Forum, claiming, “As much as I would love to say that there is a path towards a peaceful resolution to this by negotiating with this tyrant, I suspect that we may be deceiving ourselves.”

The defense industry contributed nearly $100,000 to the South Dakota Republican’s campaign committee and leadership PAC between 2019-2024.

McConnell, Tillis, Collins, Murkowski and Rounds’ offices did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment about whether the senators plan to meet with Gabbard before her confirmation hearing that will likely be scheduled for early January once the new Congress is sworn in.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from Tillis spokesperson Daniel Keylin.

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