Tulsi Gabbard one step closer to leading US spy agencies. Who is she?
Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to be President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence cleared a key Intelligence Committee vote on Tuesday.
Former United States Representative Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to be President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence cleared a key Intelligence Committee vote on Tuesday.

The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced her nomination in a closed-door 9-8 vote, with the committee's Democrats voting no, according to the Associated Press.
Gabbard's nomination now heads to the full Senate for consideration.
Both Republicans and Democrats have expressed doubts about the choice of Gabbard, a 43-year-old former Democrat and combat veteran without significant intelligence experience, to serve as the nation's top spy overseeing all 18 US intelligence agencies.
Who is Tulsi Gabbard?
- Born in American Samoa, Gabbard was raised in Hawaii, where her parents were followers of the Science of Identity Foundation, a splinter group of ISKCON.
- Coming from a family of Krishna devotees, Gabbard’s father was active in state politics. He also led a local movement opposing same-sex marriage, and later served as a Honolulu city council member, state legislator, and currently as a Hawaii state senator.
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- Deeply influenced by her guru, Chris Butler, Gabbard grew up with the Bhagavad Gita as a guiding text and has openly embraced her Hindu identity.
- At 21, she was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives in 2002. Following her deployment in Iraq, she worked as a Senate aide before winning a seat in the US House of Representatives from Hawaii in 2012.
- As the first Hindu member of the House, Gabbard was sworn into office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita.
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- In 2019-2020, she ran in the Democratic presidential primaries but later dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden.
- During her election campaign, citing her military experience, she argued that US wars in the Middle East had destabilized the region, made the US less safe and cost thousands of American lives. She had also blamed her own party for not opposing the wars.
- In 2022, she left the Democratic Party to become an independent, saying her old party was dominated by an “elitist cabal of warmongers” and “woke” ideologues.
- In the 2024 US presidential election, she expressed support for Donald Trump and later assisted his team in preparing for presidential debates.
- Gabbard is married to cinematographer Abraham Williams.
