Summary
Republican senators are privately pushing to review Tulsi Gabbard’s FBI file amid concerns about her alignment with Russian interests following her nomination as Trump’s director of national intelligence.
Gabbard’s past support for Edward Snowden, who leaked U.S. state secrets, has drawn particular scrutiny, as has her history of echoing Russian talking points on Ukraine and Syria.
While GOP senators are publicly deferring to Trump’s pick, some, including Sens. Mike Rounds and Susan Collins, emphasize the importance of full background checks and hearings to address potential security risks.
The Senate receiving every bit of intelligence on a nominee from every government organization should be a requirement. If there’s a national security issue with disclosure to the general assembly, that information should still go to the committees/Senators that have those clearances, like the Intelligence Committee.
“Although FBI file reviews are standard for presidential cabinet candidates…”
I don’t disagree with you, but this is a non-story. The committee asks for and receives this information as a matter of course
Apart from the fact that the transition team hasn’t signed the required paperwork to actually kick that off, sure.
The fucker won’t sign it either. It will go to inauguration and he will proclaim its not needed by executive decision.
He can’t. It’s the Senate’s choice.
And what if he just ignores the Senate? Who is going to stop him?
Impeachment. They can impeach all of his appointments, and ultimately him. If he continues to ignore them then we’ll get to see him forcibly removed from office.
If everyone ignores Congress then we have a Constitutional Crisis that will likely result in the end of American Democracy. In the Constitution the President has the least amount of authority.
Trump and his supporters have Congress by the short and curlies, unfortunately.
They really don’t though.
Trump wanted the Senate to just take a recess so he could make all his appointments without oversight.
That was never going to happen unless he allowed The Heritage Foundation to choose the cabinet and the Federalist Society to choose the judges. But Gaetz, Hegseth, and Gabbard made the request laughable.
It normally is but there is nothing normal about any Trump presidency.