Director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard shed further light on her 2017 meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, a trip that has come under the microscope since President Donald Trump nominated the former congresswoman. 

‘There is not a great deal in the public record about what you and Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad discussed for so long in January of 2017. And I think there’s a great deal of interest from the American people about what was discussed in that meeting. So what did you talk about? And did you press Assad on things like his use of chemical weapons, systematic torture and the killing of so many Syrians?’ Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., asked Gabbard on Thursday. 

Gabbard, when she served in the U.S. House, traveled to Syria in 2017, when she met with the dictator, whose government was overthrown years later in 2024. The visit has become a focal point of Democrats’ criticism of the DNI nominee, arguing the visit casts doubt on her worldview and judgment. 

‘Yes, senator, I, upon returning from this trip, I met with people like then-Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer, talked to them and answered their questions about the trip,’ Gabbard, who served in the U.S. House representing Hawaii from 2013 to 2021, responded. 

‘And quite frankly, I was surprised that there was no one from the intelligence community or the State Department who reached out or showed any interest whatsoever in my takeaways from that trip. I would have been very happy to have a conversation and give them a back brief. I went with former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who had been there many times before and who had met with Assad before. A number of topics were covered and discussed. And to directly answer your question, yes. I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions. The use of chemical weapons and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people.’

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also met with Assad in 2007, despite then-President George W. Bush’s criticism of the visit at the time. 

‘Were you able to extract any concessions from President Assad?’ Heinrich asked Gabbard. 

‘No, and I didn’t expect to, but I felt these issues were important to address,’ she continued. 

‘Just in complete hindsight, would you, would you view this trip as, good judgment?’ the Senate lawmaker continued. 

‘Yes, senator. And I believe that leaders, whether you be in Congress or the president of the United States, can benefit greatly by going and engaging boots on the ground, learning and listening and meeting directly with people, whether they be adversaries or friends,’ Gabbard said. 

Gabbard is appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday as part of her nomination process to serve as director of national intelligence under the second Trump administration.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pushed back in his confirmation hearing after he was grilled on the president’s pardoning of January 6 rioters.

‘So do you think that America is safer because the 1600 people have been given an opportunity to come out of serving their sentences and live in our communities again?’ Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin asked Patel in Thursday’s hearing, pressing him on January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers having their sentences commuted earlier this month.

Patel responded with a reference to Biden’s decision in the final hours of his presidency to free Leonard Peltier, a far-left activist convicted in the 1975 murders of two FBI special agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, who were gunned down in a shootout in South Dakota.

Senator, I have not looked at all 1600 individual cases,’ Patel said.

‘I have always advocated for imprisoning those that cause harm to our law enforcement and civilian communities. I also believe America is not safer because President Biden’s commutation of a man who murdered two FBI agents. Agent Coler and Williams family deserve better than to have the man that point blank range fired a shotgun into their heads and murdered them, released from prison. So it goes both ways.’

Durbin responded by downplaying the comparison between Peltier and January 6 rioters.

‘Leonard Peltier was in prison for 45 years,’ Durbin responded. ‘He’s 80 years old, and he was sentenced to home confinement. So he’s not free. As you might have just suggested. He killed two FBI agents. That he did, and he went to prison for it and should have. My question to you, though, is, do you think America’s safer because President Trump issued these pardons to 1600 of these criminal defendants, many of whom violently assaulted our police in capital?’

Patel responded, ‘Senator, America will be safe when we don’t have 200,000 drug overdoses in two years, America will be safe when we don’t have 50 homicides a day.’

Conservatives and supporters of Patel on social media praised Patel for his response.

‘Brutal reality check,’ political commentator and Confirm 47 executive director Camryn Kinsey posted on X.

In his opening remarks, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said, ‘Public trust in the FBI is low.’

‘Only 41% of the American public thinks the FBI is doing a good job. This is the lowest rating in a century,’ he continued.

Grassley touted Patel’s experience as a public defender and at the Justice Department, as well as his involvement in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

Patel has ‘managed large intelligence and defense bureaucracies, identified and countered national security threats, prosecuted and defended criminals,’ Grassley said. ‘He has done this while fighting for transparency and accountability in the government,’ giving him ‘precisely the qualifications we need at this time’ to head up the bureau.

Patel’s nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the ‘deep state.’

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report

Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard slammed the Democratic narrative that she is a puppet for U.S. and world leaders, saying she is loyal to only God, the Constitution and her own conscience in her opening remarks before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. 

‘Before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,’ Gabbard said.

‘Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States. Accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters,’ she continued. 

Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday as part of her confirmation process to serve as director of national intelligence during President Donald Trump’s second term. 

‘The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed,’ she continued of the accusations against her. 

‘The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change. The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents, is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator. I just hate al Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.’

Gabbard was elected to the U.S. House representing Hawaii during the 2012 election cycle, serving as a Democrat until 2021. She did not seek re-election to that office after throwing her hat in the 2020 White House race. 

Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, registering as an independent, before becoming a member of the GOP this year and offering her full endorsement of Trump amid his presidential campaign before Trump named her his DNI pick. 

‘If confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will continue to live by the oath that I have sworn at least eight times in my life, both in uniform, as and as a member of Congress. I will support and defend our God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same,’ she said. 

President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel was grilled Thursday over the FBI’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia connections in the aftermath of the 2016 election, known colloquially by its nickname ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ and which has emerged as something of a partisan lightning rod in the years since the investigation was closed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for his part, used most of his allotted time Thursday to grill Patel over his views on the investigation, which he has railed against as politically motivated and a ‘disgusting’ use of FBI resources.

Patel was tapped in 2017 by then-House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to join the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe – an investigation that was widely praised by Republicans as helping discredit the FBI’s inquest.

‘Is it fair to say that the people in charge of investigating Crossfire Hurricane hated Trump’s guts?’ Graham asked Patel on Thursday during his confirmation hearing.

‘Yes, sir,’ Patel responded.

Graham added, ‘Do you believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most disgusting episodes in FBI history of a corrupt investigation led by corrupt people who wanted to take Donald Trump down?’ 

After Patel responded affirmatively, Graham continued to excoriate what he sees as the politicization of the FBI, which he claimed is ‘ignoring evidence, making up evidence, and lying to get Donald Trump.’

FBI agents were telling anybody and everybody would listen that [the investigation] is not reliable, this is not trustworthy. But they plowed on,’ Graham added. 

‘That’s why you’re in this chair today to fix that,’ said Graham. ‘Without Crossfire Hurricane, this guy wouldn’t be here.’

Patel is a close ally of President Trump and served in the first Trump administration both as a deputy assistant and as the senior director for counterterrorism. 

His nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the ‘deep state.’

He has since attempted to clarify some of those remarks.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, grilled President Donald Trump’s DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard over her previous remarks praising whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

‘Until you are nominated by the president to be the DNI, you consistently praised the actions of Edward Snowden, someone, I believe, jeopardized the security of our nation and then, to flaunt that, fled to Russia,’ Warner asked of Gabbard on Thursday morning. 

‘You even called Edward Snowden and I quote here, ‘a brave whistleblower.’ Every member of this committee supports the rights of legal whistleblowers. But Edward Snowden isn’t a whistleblower, and in this case, I’m a lot closer to the chairman’s words where he said Snowden is, quote, ‘an egotistical serial liar and traitor’ who, quote, ‘deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life.’ Ms. Gabbard is simple, yes or no question. Do you still think Edward Snowden is brave?’

Gabbard pushed back that Snowden ‘broke the law’ and does not agree with his leak of intelligence.

‘Mr. Vice Chairman, Edward Snowden broke the law. I do not agree with or support with all of the information and intelligence that he released, nor the way in which he did it. There would have been opportunities for him to come to you on this committee, or seek out the IG to release that information. The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government,’ Gabbard responded. 

In 2013, Snowden was working as an IT contractor for the National Security Agency when he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with three journalists and transferred to them thousands of pages of classified documents about the U.S. government’s surveillance of its citizens. 

‘I’m making myself very clear. Edward Snowden broke the law. He released information about the United States government,’ Gabbard continued as she defended her position. 

‘If I may just finish my thoughts, Senator,’ Gabbard continued, as Warner spoke over her. ‘In this role that I’ve been nominated for, if confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will be responsible for protecting our nation’s secrets. And I have four immediate steps that I would take to prevent another Snowden-like leak.’

Gabbard has previously lauded Snowden, including during an appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast in 2019. 

‘If it wasn’t for Snowden, the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans,’ she said on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast at the time.

Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning as part of her confirmation process to serve as the second Trump administration’s director of national intelligence. 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

The Senate is set for a Thursday confirmation vote for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. 

The upper chamber voted to advance Burgum’s nomination to a confirmation vote on Wednesday by a 78–20 margin. 

Burgum appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in mid-January, where he told lawmakers that national security issues and the economy were his top two priorities for leading the agency. 

‘When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand,’ Burgum said in his opening statement Jan. 16. ‘It just shifts production to countries like Russia and Iran, whose autocratic leaders not only don’t care at all about the environment, but they use their revenues from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies.’

Lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questioned Burgum on whether he would seek to drill for oil in national parks if Trump asked him to.

‘As part of my sworn duty, I’ll follow the law and follow the Constitution. And so you can count on that,’ Burgum said. ‘And I have not heard of anything about President Trump wanting to do anything other than advancing energy production for the benefit of the American people.’

Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024. He also launched a presidential bid for the 2024 election in June 2023, where energy and natural resources served as key issues during his campaign.

Burgum appeared during the first two Republican presidential debates, but didn’t qualify for the third and ended his campaign in December 2023. He then endorsed Trump for the GOP nomination a month later ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Aubrie Spady, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.