Posted on 02/05/2025 6:55:36 AM PST by lasereye
Senate Intel Chair Tom Cotton found a surprise ally in former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) to help resuscitate Tulsi Gabbard's nomination.
Why it matters: Cotton, the hawkish Arkansan who is No. 3 in GOP leadership, worked all the angles on Gabbard.
Inside the room: Cotton, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and former Intel Chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) huddled with Gabbard for over an hour ahead of last week's committee hearing trying to make sure concerns were addressed.
Zoom in: Cotton worked closely alongside Vance, the White House legislative affairs office and Gabbard's sherpas, keeping the White House updated on the status of the nomination.
The bottom line: There still could be other no votes in the Senate, most notably GOP Sens. John Curtis of Utah, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
I can’t help but wonder whether the developments at the USAID office are bringing otherwise recalcitrant people into line.
She still needs to win the actual confirmation, as do RFK Jr and Kash Patel. I can’t believe Republicans with a majority take this long to confirm their president’s nominees - Democrats always join ranks.
Edward Snowden for NSA
The handwriting becoming visible on the wall.
ding ding ding, we have a winner! reportedly Musk was in some recent conversations with a senator after the USAID info dropped.
Stupid Senate rules allow them to posture and play games to delay nominations. They cannot stop them but they can hold them up with procedural games. GOP does it to Dems some times but never like the Dems are using the goofy rule now
“Snowden would later publicly claim that his ‘breaking point’—the final impetus for his unauthorized downloads and disclosures of troves of classified material—was March 2013
congressional testimony by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. . . .
But only a few weeks after [he became engaged in a] conflict with NSA managers, on July 12, 2012—eight months before Director Clapper’s testimony—Snowden began the
unauthorized mass downloading of information from NSA networks.” (p. 10)
“His supervisor in [redacted] cataloged six counseling sessions between October 2007 and
April 2008, nearly one per month, regarding his behavior at work.” (p. 5)
“Most of the documents Snowden stole have no connection to programs that could impact privacy or civil liberties—they instead pertain to military, defense, and intelligence programs of great interest to America’s adversaries.”
“Snowden’s disclosures did tremendous damage to U.S. national security”
https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/snowden_report_highlights.pdf
When’s the final vote?
That’s what happens when the other side chooses and largely controls its “opposition”.
“DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn was asked by Sen. Susan Collins about the impact of recent unauthorized disclosures during today’s Worldwide Threat Assessment Hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.”
“SEN SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE: Chairman. General Flynn. Thus far in the discussion today and in general, there has been very little focus on the damage that Edward Snowden has done to our military. I’ve read the DIA assessment and it is evident to me that most of the documents stolen by Mr.Snowden have nothing to do with the privacy rights and civil liberties of American citizens or even the NSA collection programs.
“Indeed these documents, and we’ve heard the number 1.7 million documents, are in many cases multi-pages. If you printed them all and stacked them they would be more than 3 miles high. I say that to give the public more information about how extraordinarily extensive the documents that he’s stole were. And they don’t just pertain to the NSA; they pertain to the entire intelligence community. And include information about military intelligence, our defense capabilities, the defense industry.”
“COLLINS: So it has caused grave damage to our national security, and you would agree that it puts at risk potentially the lives of our troops. Is that accurate?
“FLYNN: Yes, Ma’am.”
“Edward Snowden for NSA”
Every poster on Free Republic should be aware that everything they type on an electronic device or say over a phone is probably being recorded and analyzed.
Her Confirmation was Never in doubt.
I can’t help but wonder whether the developments at the USAID office are bringing otherwise recalcitrant people into line.
It has certainly put the Deep State and those GOPer's still sympathetic to the Deep State on the defensive.
To use Elon's analogy, USAID was a ball of worms, and there is much uncertainty to where or who those worms might turn.
BTTT
Sorry but why do Republicans need an outsider like Sinema to convince their own caucus? This is bizarre.
Sorry but why do Republicans need an outsider like Sinema to convince their own caucus?
Most Republicans are Democrats.
No Democrats are Republicans.
“The bottom line: There still could be other no votes in the Senate, most notably GOP Sens. John Curtis of Utah, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.”
Trump’s proposal on Alaska energy is a carrot for Murkowski. Her best bet is to take the offer and vote for all of Trump’s remaining cabinet positions.
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