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Gabbard secured confirmation on a 52-48 vote. In her new role, Gabbard will oversee the 18 agencies within the U.S. Intelligence community, serving as the president's top adviser on intelligence matters.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said on social media after the vote that Gabbard would be sworn in at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
Before joining the Trump administration, Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa and raised in Hawaii, represented Hawaii in the U.S. House as a Democrat for four terms from 2013 to 2021. She ran for president as a Democrat but left the party in 2022 and changed her affiliation to Republican when she began campaigning for Trump last fall. She is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who served in Iraq.
Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the only Republican to vote against Gabbard's confirmation, said in a statement that Gabbard was not ready for the job.
"In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust," McConnell said. “The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment."
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