Rep. Michael McCaul calls Tulsi Gabbard a “baffling” pick to lead intelligence community

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WASHINGTON —U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs chair, called Tulsi Gabbard a “baffling” pick to lead the nation’s Intelligence Community, offering one of the sternest rebukes from a Republican yet.

President-elect Donald Trump selected the former Democratic congresswoman to be the next director of national intelligence, a cabinet-level position that oversees 18 agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. Gabbard ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and later made a hard pivot to supporting Trump. She recently bought a residence in Leander.

Gabbard has stirred controversy for making comments sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin after his 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Gabbard also met in 2017 with recently ousted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, who has used chemical weapons on his own people as part of the Syrian civil war. Both Assad and Putin are under U.S. sanctions.

“For someone to have this history of comments that appear to be pro-Putin and pro-Assad, who have historically been our enemies, to head up our intelligence to me is a bit baffling,” McCaul said during a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol Hill office Tuesday. When asked if Gabbard’s selection caused him concern, McCaul said, “Yes.”

Gabbard has argued against continued aid for Ukraine in its defense against Russia — a priority that McCaul has fought hard for throughout his time in Congress. She posted on social media in 2022 that the “war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns.”

Gabbard is still subject to confirmation by the Senate, and several senators have kept quiet on how they would vote on her nomination. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, met with Gabbard in his Washington office on Wednesday. His office has not said whether he would support Gabbard’s confirmation, though he said after the meeting that he found her “impressive” and that he looked forward to the confirmation process going forward. Cornyn sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he finds Gabbard to be “a very impressive person,” noting her service as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.

“She’s smart. She’s serious. I think Tulsi is going to be confirmed. We’ll have a confirmation process for every one of these candidates. Under the Constitution, the Senate has a responsibility to advise and consent. But I believe at the end of the day, that all of the Trump Cabinet nominees are going to be confirmed,” Cruz said in an interview with Dallas’ WFAA.

As a member of the House, McCaul does not have a formal say in Cabinet appointments. He predicted senators would tank the nomination.

“The Senate, they typically pick and choose, and one of them will have to go down. If I were betting, I would say it's probably the ODNI,” McCaul said, using an acronym for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Several of Trump’s picks for Cabinet positions have stirred controversy. Trump named former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to be his attorney general. Gaetz faces allegations of sexual abuse that made him subject to a federal investigation and a probe by the House Ethics Committee. The federal investigation into sex trafficking ended without charges last year. The House Ethics Committee, which includes El Paso Democrat Veronica Escobar, voted to release its report some time before the end of the year, CNN reported Wednesday.

Gaetz withdrew from the running after his nomination caused considerable controversy and Senate Republicans indicated little confidence in his confirmation.

Trump also named the Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be the next secretary of Defense. Hegseth faces allegations of alcohol and sexual abuse, which he denies, and does not have a résumé typical of Defense secretary nominees. He was a U.S. Army major and also has run advocacy groups for veterans. By contrast, Jim Mattis, Trump’s first Defense secretary, had served as commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander for transformation before serving as commander of U.S. Central Command.

Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has derided the Justice Department as politically weaponized against conservatives. The Justice Department includes the FBI. He has vowed to gut the agency and disperse agents around the country, turning the FBI’s current Washington headquarters into a “museum of the deep state.”

McCaul, who previously chaired the House Homeland Security Committee and worked as a Justice Department prosecutor before his time in Congress, had less critical things to say about Hegseth and Patel.

McCaul acknowledged that Hegseth “has got baggage” but said he exhibits “some leadership qualities” and could be “very positive” as Defense secretary.

“I do think he's probably going to make it,” McCaul said of his Senate confirmation.

McCaul expressed sympathy to Patel’s calls for streamlining the FBI, saying “with any department or agency, there's always a case to be made for getting rid of the dead wood, and making it more agile and effective.” But he added the Justice Department “does extremely important work.”

“There are a lot of good men and women in there, the FBI and the DOJ,” McCaul said. “They're not waking up every day thinking, ’How can I politically go after somebody?’ In fact, we never wore our political beliefs on our sleeve.”

McCaul said he was willing to buy the argument that the department was weaponized “to some extent, but I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I do think the institution itself is very necessary to protect our national security.”