Tulsi Gabbard confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence role begins today

Gabbard, a former Democrat who represented Hawaii in Congress from 2013 to 2021, is an unconventional pick to oversee the nation’s 18 spy agencies. 

She served in the Army National Guard for more than 20 years,  but does not have a background in intelligence. 

The 43-year-old was born in American Samoa and grew up in Hawaii in a socially conservative household. She entered politics as a Democrat at age 21 when she was elected to the Hawaii statehouse, but was deployed to Iraq and left the position after a year. After a deployment to Kuwait, she won a seat on Honolulu’s City Council in 2010. 

She became the first Hindu member of the House when she was sworn into Congress in 2013. She was also the first American Samoan elected to Congress. During her four terms in the House, Gabbard served on the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees. 

Gabbard opted not to run for reelection to the House in 2020, instead launching a longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Two years later, she left the Democratic Party, saying that it was “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers.” 

She endorsed Mr. Trump’s bid for the White House last summer and was tapped to serve as co-chair of his transition team. 

Gabbard’s decision to join the Trump administration marks the latest political shift for the former congresswoman. Early in her political career, she opposed gay marriage and condemned abortion. But while in Congress she voted to protect abortion rights and supported same-sex marriage. During the 2016 campaign, she gave a leadership position in the DNC to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.