The Senate voted on Monday according to the parties of the parties to advance the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard to be the national intelligence director, signaling the collapse of the republican resistance to his appointment and placing it on a path to confirmation.
The vote from 52 to 46 was the last sign that the Republicans, faced with the intense pressure from President Trump to confirm his candidates, are willing to drop serious reserves and capitulate his wishes. He eliminated the last obstacle to the confirmation of Ms. Gabbard, considered as a difficult battle in the Senate in the midst of strong bipartite concerns concerning his positions on intelligence issues and the sympathetic statements concerning the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
She is now practically confirmed during a final vote which will be held late Tuesday evening or early Wednesday.
The action came while the Democrats, who called Ms. Gabbard, unfit for this role, pressed their republican colleagues to join them in opposition.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the best democrat of the intelligence committee, said that it would be “irresponsible” to confirm Ms. Gabbard, the appellant unfit to direct the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community in the United States.
“The world today is more complex and more dangerous than ever; We need serious people with experience, expertise and judgment to navigate this complexity, “said Warner in a speech a few moments before the vote. “Unfortunately, Ms. Gabbard is not such a candidate.”
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