Politics
Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard as Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence after Republicans fall in line
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence after Republicans who had initially questioned her experience and judgment fell in line behind her nomination.
Gabbard was an unconventional pick to oversee and coordinate the country’s 18 different intelligence agencies, given her past comments sympathetic to Russia, a meeting she held with now-deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad and her previous support for government leaker Edward Snowden.
Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, was confirmed by a 52-48 vote, with Democrats opposed in the sharply divided Senate where Republicans hold a slim majority. The only “no’ vote from a Republican came from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
She will take over the top intelligence post as Trump works to reshape vast portions of the federal government. Intelligence agencies including the CIA have issued voluntary resignation offers to staffers, while cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to sensitive government databases containing information about intelligence operations.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created to address intelligence failures exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001. Republicans have increasingly criticized the office, saying it has grown too large and politicized. Trump himself has long viewed the nation’s intelligence services with suspicion.
GOP Senators who had expressed concerns about Gabbard’s stance on Snowden, Syria and Russia said they were won over by her promise to refocus on the office’s core missions: coordinating federal intelligence work and serving as the president’s chief intelligence adviser.
Democrats noted that Gabbard had no experience working for an intelligence agency and said her past stances on Russia, Syria and Snowden made her a poor choice for the job. They also questioned whether she would stand up to Trump if necessary and could maintain vital intelligence sharing with American allies.
“It is an insult to people who have dedicated their lives and put themselves in harm’s way to have her confirmed into this position,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst, about members of America’s intelligence service.
Until GOP support fell into place, it was unclear whether Gabbard’s nomination would succeed. Given the 53-47 split in the Senate, Gabbard needed virtually all Republicans to vote “yes.”
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base has pressured senators to support Trump’s nominees, and Musk, the President’s ally, took to social media recently to brand U.S. Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, as a “deep-state puppet.” Young had raised concerns about Gabbard but announced his support after speaking with Musk. The post was deleted after they spoke, and Musk later called Young an ally.
Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for President in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience and has never run a government agency or department.
Gabbard’s past praise of Snowden drew particularly harsh questions during her confirmation hearing. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about U.S. surveillance programs.
Gabbard said that while Snowden disclosed important facts about such programs that she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. “Edward Snowden broke the law,” she said.
Gabbard’s 2017 visit with Assad was another flashpoint. He was recently deposed following a brutal civil war in which he was accused of using chemical weapons.
Following her visit, Gabbard faced criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator, and then there were more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used such weapons.
Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.
“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions,” Gabbard said.
She also has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past, she opposed a key U.S. surveillance program known as Section 702, which allows authorities to collect the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
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Florida is the leader in a terrible statistic: More children under the age of 5 die from drowning in the Sunshine State than any other place in the country, according to the Department of Children and Families.
Two Orlando Democrats are pushing legislation to add more pool regulations they hope will save lives.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Rep. Johanna López filed legislation (SB 604, HB 93) that would require, starting Oct. 1, all residences with swimming pools being sold or having ownership transferred to pass a final inspection to make sure the older pools meet the same safety standards for newly constructed pools.
“We must put an end to the epidemic of preventable child drownings that continue to happen in this state,” Smith said in a statement. “Our proposed pool safety requirements are great tools for drowning prevention, and it is critical we ensure they apply to the sale and transfer of all residential homes, regardless of construction year.”
Under their bill, title companies, inspectors and mortgage underwriters will be required to report any home that fails to meet safety and drowning prevention standards, the lawmakers said.
Current Florida law requires pools to have at least one safety measure in place which includes either a safety pool cover, an exit alarm on the home’s doors or windows leading to the pool or a swimming pool alarm.
López co-sponsored a similar bill last year with Rep. Rita Harris that died in the Regulatory Reform and Economic Development Subcommittee.
“Too many families in Florida have suffered the unimaginable loss of a child due to accidental drowning — an entirely preventable tragedy,” López said. “By refiling HB 93 alongside Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, we are taking a critical step toward strengthening residential pool safety laws, ensuring that every pool has at least one life-saving safety feature.”
Their identical bills were endorsed by Brent Moore, Executive Director of Children’s Safety Village of Central Florida, a nonprofit focused on protecting kids.
“With Florida again leading the nation in unintentional drowning of children under 18 we emphasize the need for heightened safety standards,” Moore said in a statement. “We believe these updated standards reduce drownings, and all homes should have these protections.”
The Legislature’s Regular Session convenes March 4.
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It’s time for Florida to start looking to the skies to escape bumper-to-bumper highway traffic, according to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Jared Perdue.
Perdue this month said he’s interested in having the state seek development of helipad-like sites called vertiports to facilitate the operation of electrical mini-planes to shuttle travelers to and from nearby destinations.
The mini-planes, called eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, have been in various stages of development — and in various talks for Florida projects — for years.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez met with a German builder called Lilium GmbH when he was Miami-Dade Mayor in 2018 to pursue the option locally. The County Commission later directed his successor, Daniella Levine Cava, to further study developing an “Urban Air Mobility System” in Miami-Dade, with the potential of bringing services to South Florida by as early as 2026.
Purdue’s onboard too, and he envisions “thousands of (eVTOLs) flying back and forth on the I-4 corridor.” He expects the tech will soon be significantly more efficient, affordable and in broader use.
“You can think about movies that you’ve seen that are science fiction,” he told members of the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee last week. “I think you’re going to see rapid development over just a few-year time span.”
The concept of flying cars, taxis, buses and freight vehicles is hardly new, as anyone who has watched “The Fifth Element,” “The Jetsons” or read any number of comic books can attest.
Ride-share company Uber has pumped millions into a flying car project. Amazon’s drone delivery system, Prime Air, launched in 2022. Walgreens and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, launched a drone delivery service called Wing the year before.
More such initiatives were or have been in the works across myriad urban areas worldwide, from Miami to Los Angeles to London to Japan and many places in between.
In January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) updated its design guidelines for vertiport facilities, partly grouping them with heliports. The move came about three months after the agency issued its final rule for the qualifications and training that instructors and pilots must have to fly aircraft in the “powered-lift” category — meaning they have characteristics of both airplanes and helicopters — to which eVTOLs belong.
It marked a milestone in aviation, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker noted in October; powered-lift vehicles are the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years.
“This historic rule will pave the way for accommodating wide-scale Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations in the future,” he said.
Florida lawmakers last year approved legislation to help fund vertiport developments through a new grant program under the Florida Department of Commerce. They could soon consider a next step through twin bills (SB 266, HB 199) by Stuart Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell and Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras that would exempt eVTOL sales, leases or transfers from the state sales tax.
Neither measure has received a hearing yet.
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Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
We do it every year, and we’re sorry for it, but we forgot to wish our friend, former Sen. Jeff Brandes, a happy birthday in this morning’s edition of Sunburn. We’ll try to not forget next year!
First Shot
The Senate has moved a step closer to passing a new bill that is a compromise between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature over who gets the power to oversee the state’s immigration efforts.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill (SB 2C) sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters that would establish a board to oversee Florida’s immigration efforts and increase penalties for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
Democrats spoke fiercely against another provision in the measure that would eliminate in-state tuition rates for the 6,500 undocumented immigrants currently attending Florida’s public colleges and universities.
Last month, the Legislature passed the TRUMP Act naming Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson as the state’s immigration enforcement chief, taking that power from DeSantis.
Lawmakers and DeSantis clashed over who should be the leader working with the federal government to stop illegal immigration. The Governor vowed to veto the bill.
The Legislature went back into Special Session this week for the third time, with Gruters’ bill proposing that no single official would have the role. Instead, DeSantis, Simpson, the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer and handpicked county Sheriffs and Police Chiefs would share those responsibilities and be required to make decisions unanimously as a council.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Democrats raised concerns that undocumented students known as Dreamers could see tuition tripled or quadrupled to out-of-state rates, potentially forcing them to drop out of school.
Read more on Florida Politics.
Evening Reads
—”How Mexico’s leader is writing the playbook for handling Donald Trump” via Santiago Pérez, José de Córdoba and Vipal Monga of The Wall Street Journal
—”Republicans love Trump’s spending cuts. Just not in their states.” via Maya C. Miller and Catie Edmondson of The New York Times
—”Trump’s shocking purge of public health data, explained” via Dylan Scott of Vox
—”The government waste DOGE should be cutting” via Stephen Macekura of The Atlantic
—”How RFK Jr., once a long shot, arrived at the precipice of Trump’s Cabinet” via Dan Diamond of The Washington Post
—”Ron DeSantis was able to fly migrants anywhere in the country. Now he’ll need permission.” via Ana Ceballos of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times
—”Florida’s supercharged voucher program sends millions to wealthy families, pricy private schools” via Annie Martin, Leslie Postal and Scott Travis of the Orlando Sentinel/South Florida Sun-Sentinel
—”Are mass deportations Christian? Florida leaders contemplate the question.” via Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times
—“Scientists detect a mysterious messenger from the cosmos” via Carolyn Y. Johnson of The Washington Post
—”How the Village People went from ‘Y.M.C.A.’ to MAGA” via David Browne of Rolling Stone
Quote of the Day
“The President is tired of the drip, drip, drip; he wants people out.”
— Secretary of State Marco Rubio, telling Hamas to speed up hostage releases.
Put it on the Tab
Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.
The Governor is working up a thirst protecting petroleum-powered vessels. Help him cool down with something frozen — preferably prepared in a TailGator 2.25 HP gas-powered blender.
DeSantis says his COVID-era policies are to thank after another record year for tourism, but we’re still recommending an Orange Crush for the VISIT FLORIDA team.
Florida TaxWatch gets a Make It Count for reminding policymakers that it’s never too early to prep for the Census.
Breakthrough Insights
Tune In
Noles trying to move up ACC standings
Florida State will try to improve its standing in the Atlantic Coast Conference when it plays Wake Forest tonight (7 p.m. ET, ESPNU).
The Seminoles (14-9, 5-7 ACC) sit in ninth place in the ACC standings after snapping a four-game losing streak last week in a 67-60 victory over Notre Dame. Jamir Watkins led FSU with 21 points while Malique Ewin added 18 points and 10 rebounds in the victory.
With eight games remaining in the regular season, Florida State must finish strong to avoid playing on the first day of the ACC tournament. Teams seeded 10 through 15 would have a much longer road to winning the conference tournament and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, likely the only chance for the Noles to play in March Madness.
Wake Forest (18-6, 10-3) is tied for fourth in the conference standings, thanks to a three-game winning streak. The game is important for the Demon Deacons, as the top four seeds in the conference receive first—and second-round byes in the postseason tournament.
Tonight’s game is the only scheduled meeting between the Seminoles and Demon Deacons this season.
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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.
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