Sen. Mitch McConnell, a national security hawk who is retiring when his term ends in 2026, has bucked President Donald Trump—again.
Tulsi Gabbard won Senate confirmation Wednesday to become the nation’s top spy under Trump after every Republican except for the former longtime GOP leader from Kentucky bowed down to the president.
Senators voted 52-48 to confirm Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence, with skeptical Republicans shelving their reservations about her qualifications and falling in lock step with Trump.
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All of them, save for McConnell.
“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,” McConnell, 82, said in a statement explaining his vote against Trump’s controversial choice to oversee the nation’s entire intelligence gathering apparatus.
“Edward Snowden’s treasonous betrayal of the United States and its most sensitive lawful intelligence activities endangered sources, methods, and lives. Japan is among America’s closest treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific, and the risk of conflict in the region is the product of Chinese aggression, not western ‘threat inflation.’ Russia’s escalation of its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine threatens American interests and is solely the responsibility of Vladimir Putin,” he said."
McConnell also voted against Pete Hegseth to become defense secretary.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reminded his colleagues on the other side of the aisle that Gabbard “falls for conspiracy theories” and “echoes Russian propaganda,” having expressed sympathy in the past for adversarial dictators, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and now-deposed Syrian leader Assad al-Bashar.
“Please, please, please answer one simple question,” Schumer begged Republicans in a floor speech ahead of the vote. “Do you care more about doing the right thing for our national security, or doing whatever is necessary to keep Donald Trump happy?”
In the end, Trump prevailed.
So far, the only nominee he has lost in the process is Matt Gaetz, the scandal-plagued former congressman from Florida who he had tapped for attorney general, a job now held by Pam Bondi, Trump’s second choice.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president’s nominee to become the nation’s top health official, was slated to get a final Senate confirmation vote on Thursday, nearly rounding out Trump’s cabinet.
The Senate will act soon, perhaps even this weekend, on Trump nominees Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary, Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler to become small business administrator.
In approving Gabbard, GOP senators also dropped their concerns about the nominee’s past defense of Snowden, the contractor who blew the whistle on U.S. intelligence gathering, and her prior opposition to warrantless wiretap surveillance.
GOP senators who had expressed the most skepticism about Gabbard included Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana, and freshman Sen. John Curtis of Utah.
“If there was a secret ballot, I would bet that Gabbard would get no more than 10 votes in the Senate,” Schumer surmised. “Ten, maybe.”
“Beginning today, the brave men and women of America’s intelligence community will turn to Director Gabbard for principled leadership and sounder judgment in the service of America’s interests and national security,” McConnell added. “I join all of them in hoping that she rises to the immense responsibilities of her office.”
