Key Republican says he will support Gabbard as Trump DNI pick
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said in a Sunday interview that he will support President-elect Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii).
In the interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Lankford attributed his support for Gabbard to her reversal on FISA Section 702, which gives the U.S. the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens located abroad.
“Yes, I am,” Lankford said, when asked whether he is a “yes” on Gabbard, who consistently voted against reauthorizing Section 702 when she served in the House.
“And that was a very important piece for me,” he continued, referring to Gabbard’s reversal last week. “Obviously she voted against 702 authority. And just to clarify that, that authority is for actually trying to be able to track terrorists overseas. That has nothing to do with American citizens or anything that's happening in the United States.”
Gabbard issued a statement last week, saying, “If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people.”
Lankford said on NBC he was encouraged by the statement.
“That's part of the role of the office of national intelligence is to make sure we're actually watching for people to come attack us and stopping them before they do,” he said.
Lankford previously said it was important that Gabbard clarify her position on Section 702.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Lankford pointed to Gabbard’s past opposition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority as an important point for Gabbard to address during her confirmation hearing.
“She’s going to be the spokesman for 702 authority. It's a legitimate question just to say, ‘OK, how are you going to handle this? What does that mean?’ Because if she comes out and says, "No, I want to oppose all 702 authority," that literally shuts down all of our national defense gathering,” Lankford said last week.
“Now I don't think that that's what she's going to say at all, and I've had an opportunity to be able to sit down with her, but she's going to get a fair hearing to be able to put those things out there and to say, ‘This is what I believe about these issues.’ And I think it's the right thing to do,” he added at the time.