Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Newsmax that director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard will "do a very good job" in her upcoming Senate hearing on Thursday.
Gabbard, who President Donald Trump nominated in November, is expected to face tough questions regarding her past statements and qualifications to lead the nation's security apparatus. Rounds said that Gabbard "will make a good opening statement about her path forward and her experience."
"The questions will focus on her trips overseas. And then she'll also be asked a lot of questions about [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and about the 702 reauthorization — which will occur next year — and her support for it. So I think those will be a number of the items that will be brought up and will give her an opportunity to explain how much she really knows about the intelligence community and how capable she is," Rounds said during an appearance on "Wake Up America."
Gabbard is a former Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District and went through a political metamorphosis shortly after her presidential campaign of 2020 ended. Rounds, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he expects Gabbard to come prepared.
"I'm expecting that she will do a very good job, and she'll be prepared to answer those questions in an open forum, and then I look forward to visiting with her in the closed forum as well. I think she's going to do just fine today," Rounds added.
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