Hours before Tulsi Gabbard appeared for a combative hearing on her nomination as director of national intelligence on Thursday, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave some public advice to the woman who once pushed for his pardon.
“Tulsi Gabbard will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today. I encourage her to do so. Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In D.C., that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance,” Snowden said on X.
Even after facing more than a dozen questions about Snowden, however, Gabbard refused to back down.
Instead, Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Snowden broke the law and that she would no longer push for his pardon — but that he had revealed blatant violations of the Constitution.
Damn, this is a hard one. Gabbard is right to defend him but likely for deeply shitty motivations.
At the end of the day this is probably going to make it much more difficult to discuss why whistle-blowers deserve protection with my liberal family.
This is a stopped clock situation.
She’s not wrong to defend him. But she would be a catastrophically awful pick for this position.
Stopped digital clocks just display 88 all the time.