Gabbard’s hearing becomes held on Snowden’s questions

The senators of the two parties strongly questioned Tulsi Gabbard, the choice of President Trump to be director of national intelligence, during an audience held and sometimes combative Thursday which could report a difficult confirmation fight.

During more than two hours, the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seeming in turn skeptical and indignant, pressed Ms. Gabbard of her 2017 meeting with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator who was ousted in December, And his statements accusing the United States. And NATO for provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But it is his refusal to fully denounce Edward J. Snowden, the former entrepreneur of the National Security Agency who disclosed classified information trains on government surveillance programs in 2013, which seemed to be aroused the most concerns among the Republicans and Democrats.

She refused, under a repeated question of the members of the two parties, to declare that Mr. Snowden was a “traitor”, replied rather that he “breaks the law” and that she would seek to prevent leaks similar to the future , if it was confirmed to supervise the 18 spy agencies in the country.

Gabbard said that Mr. Snowden, whose most important disclosure was the collection of loose data from the Americans, had “exposed flagrant, illegal and unconstitutional programs that occur within our government”.

His answers seemed to leave several members of the dissatisfied committee.

“Is Edward Snowden a traitor for the United States of America?” Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, asked in a thunderous voice. “It is not a difficult question to answer when the issues are also high.”