If any whistleblowers were considering leaking documents that expose malfeasance by the Trump administration, they can’t be blamed for thinking twice after Thursday’s confirmation hearing for Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard.
It’s been nearly 12 years since Edward Snowden and journalists at The Guardian and The Washington Post exposed the National Security Agency’s illegal mass surveillance of Americans. Watching Thursday’s hearing, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s been 12 minutes.
Over and over and over for nearly three hours, instead of focusing on the plenty of legitimate reasons to be skeptical of Gabbard’s nomination, senators interrogated her about Snowden (who is a member of our board of directors) and his decade-plus-old leaks. When they weren’t grilling her about Snowden, they demanded she explain her recently rescinded opposition to Section 702 of FISA, as though it’s scandalous to have once questioned domestic spying powers that a court found unconstitutional just last week.
Did they ask Gabbard how she would ensure intelligence agencies follow the Constitution and the law when it comes to surveillance? No. Did they question her about whether she believed it’s appropriate for the government to mislead the Supreme Court about its surveillance practices? Nope. Maybe they asked if she would promise not to lie to Congress when asked about the NSA collecting data on Americans? Wrong again!
Instead, senators were laser focused on demanding...
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