The Senate voted 52-46 on February 10, 2025, to invoke cloture on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence, ending debate and clearing the way for a final confirmation vote. The Tulsi Gabbard cloture vote fell along party lines, with Senators John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Thom Tillis of North Carolina not voting.1U.S. Senate. Roll Call Vote 49 — Cloture Motion on Tulsi Gabbard Nomination Republicans overcame unified Democratic opposition to advance the nomination.2Roll Call. Senate Advances Gabbard’s Nomination to Become DNI
The Final Confirmation Two Days Later
On February 12, 2025, the Senate confirmed Gabbard by a vote of 52-48. All 47 Democrats and one independent voted no. The single Republican defection came from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.3U.S. Senate. Roll Call Vote 50 — Confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard4NBC News. Senate Votes to Confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Top U.S. Intelligence Official
The two-vote margin made Gabbard one of the most narrowly confirmed cabinet-level nominees of President Donald Trump’s second term. The Trump administration had mobilized heavily in the days before the vote, deploying CIA Director John Ratcliffe, former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, and former Senator Richard Burr to call wavering senators directly.5ABC News. Gabbard Gains Support of Two Key GOP Senators Ahead of Vote
Why the Vote Was So Close
McConnell’s Break from His Party
McConnell issued a formal statement calling Gabbard a nominee with “a history of alarming lapses in judgment” who had “failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust.” He cited her past support for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, whose disclosures McConnell described as a “treasonous betrayal” that “endangered sources, methods, and lives.”6Kentucky Lantern. McConnell Votes No on Tulsi Gabbard, Cites Alarming Lapses in Judgment
McConnell also faulted her for attributing Indo-Pacific tensions to “western threat inflation” rather than to Chinese aggression, and for what he described as a late, convenient embrace of intelligence collection authorities once her nomination looked to be in trouble.7LPM. McConnell, the Lone GOP Vote Against Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence
Democratic Objections
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner led the Democratic opposition. He argued Gabbard lacked the “extensive national security expertise” the statute requires of the DNI and suggested her confirmation might not satisfy the law establishing the office.8Politico. Tulsi Gabbard, Mark Warner, and the Law on DNI Qualifications Warner and other Democrats pointed to a pattern of statements they said showed poor judgment: blaming NATO for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rejecting the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Assad regime used chemical weapons in Syria, and her stance on Snowden.9C-SPAN. Director of National Intelligence Nominee Tulsi Gabbard Testifies at Confirmation Hearing
A 2017 trip during which Gabbard met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without informing the U.S. government drew heavy scrutiny at her hearing. She defended the meeting as an attempt to find a peaceful resolution to the Syrian civil war and acknowledged it produced no concessions from Assad.10Roll Call. Gabbard Faces Questions on Assad Meetings, Surveillance Policy11Politico. Moustafa on Gabbard and Syria Concerns
Her prior opposition to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which she had once described as “illegal warrantless surveillance,” added another layer of concern. By the hearing, she had reversed course, telling senators, “If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702.” Committee members openly questioned whether the reversal was sincere.10Roll Call. Gabbard Faces Questions on Assad Meetings, Surveillance Policy
The Case Republicans Made for Her
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton framed Gabbard’s “unconventional thinking” as exactly what the intelligence community needed and noted she had passed five FBI background checks with a record “clean as a whistle.”8Politico. Tulsi Gabbard, Mark Warner, and the Law on DNI Qualifications Senator Todd Young, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer whose vote had been in doubt, announced support after securing what he described as “firm commitments” from Gabbard on national security priorities.5ABC News. Gabbard Gains Support of Two Key GOP Senators Ahead of Vote Trump had nominated her for what the administration called her “fearless spirit” and willingness to “disrupt the Washington establishment.”12BBC News. Senate Confirms Tulsi Gabbard as Intelligence Chief
What Gabbard Did as DNI
Gabbard moved quickly to reshape the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In April 2025 she launched the Director’s Initiative Group, a task force meant to root out what she called the “politicization of intelligence gathering,” cut spending, and review classified holdings for declassification.13Federal News Network. Gabbard Ends Intelligence Reform Task Force After Less Than a Year of Work The group oversaw releases of records tied to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as materials on COVID-19 origins and the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation.14ODNI. DNI Press Release on Director’s Initiatives Group It was disbanded by February 2026.
In August 2025 she announced “ODNI 2.0,” cutting the office’s workforce by more than 40% and its annual budget by over $700 million, and calling the office “bloated and inefficient” after 20 years of operation.15PBS NewsHour. Gabbard Announces 40% Cut to Workforce at Key U.S. Intelligence Office The restructuring closed the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which she called redundant and accused of having been used to suppress political speech. Emerson Brooking of the Atlantic Council disputed that account, saying the center had been built specifically to eliminate the kind of duplication Gabbard cited.16Federal News Network. Gabbard Slashing Intelligence Office Workforce by 40%, Cutting Budget by More Than $700 Million
In May 2025, Gabbard fired Mike Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, and his deputy Maria Langan-Riekhof. Her office said the dismissals were part of an effort to “end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community.” They came one week after the NIC released a declassified memo contradicting Trump administration claims about coordination between the Venezuelan government and the Tren de Aragua gang.17PBS NewsHour. Gabbard Fires Two Top Intelligence Officials, Changes Who Preps Trump’s Daily Brief The administration also revoked security clearances for 37 current and former officials, among them former President Biden, Liz Cheney, and Hillary Clinton.15PBS NewsHour. Gabbard Announces 40% Cut to Workforce at Key U.S. Intelligence Office
In late January 2026, Gabbard appeared in person at an FBI search of the Fulton County, Georgia, elections hub, where agents seized roughly 700 boxes of ballots and documents from the 2020 election. She said she attended at Trump’s request and cited her “statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”18PBS NewsHour. Gabbard Says Trump Requested Her Presence at FBI Search of Georgia Election Center Critics questioned why the DNI, whose role centers on foreign intelligence, was present at a domestic law enforcement operation. Accounts of who sent her shifted between Gabbard, Trump, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Warner compared the conflicting explanations to “Nixon-esque” behavior.19ABC News. Bondi Defends Gabbard’s Role in Controversial Georgia Election Probe
Her standing inside the administration eroded during the U.S. military campaign against Iran. In March 2026 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program had been “obliterated” and that there had been “no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” an assessment reported to conflict with statements from Trump and other senior officials.20Roll Call. Tulsi Gabbard Out as DNI Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a former Gabbard chief of staff, resigned on March 17, 2026, writing that he could not “in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.” By that point, reporting described Gabbard as excluded from Iran military planning and holding “less and less influence” in the White House.21Politico. Joe Kent Resigns Over Iran War
How Her Tenure Ended
On May 22, 2026, Trump announced that Gabbard would resign effective June 30, 2026, citing a personal reason: her husband, Abraham Williams, had been diagnosed with a sacral chordoma, a rare and aggressive bone cancer.22The Hill. Tulsi Gabbard Husband Bone Cancer Surgery Update In her resignation letter, she wrote she could not “in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”23Newsweek. Tulsi Gabbard Husband Abraham Williams Cancer Diagnosis Trump said on Truth Social that she had “done an incredible job” and that “we will miss her.”24Scripps News. Limited Experience, Policy Disagreements Mark Tulsi Gabbard’s DNI Tenure Aaron Lukas, her principal deputy and a career CIA officer with more than 20 years in the intelligence community, was named Acting Director of National Intelligence.25NewsNation. Intelligence Chief Aaron Lukas Gabbard served roughly 16 months in the office the 52-46 cloture vote had opened to her.