Senate sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News on Monday that the FBI’s background check of Gabbard is taking close to the maximum amount of time the FBI has had to conduct it and is expected back to the Senate Intelligence Committee sometime in the next 24 to 48 hours. As soon as the FBI background check documents are filed with the committee, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)—who chairs the Intelligence Committee—is expected to formally file a notice to schedule Gabbard’s confirmation hearing.
That’s where Senate Democrats come in. If they do not agree to expedite Gabbard’s hearing—Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is the main player here, as he is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee—then the committee under its rules needs to notice the hearing a full seven days later from the notice when it’s filed. That means Gabbard’s confirmation hearing could drag into next week, and her full confirmation before the Senate could drag into February depending on how ridiculous Democrats get with this whole process.
A lot of people close to Gabbard and Trump want to see the Senate Republicans really aggressively throw down hard against the Senate Democrats on this matter, too, multiple sources familiar with the process told Breitbart News. At this point, though, Senate Republicans have not aggressively publicly called out Democrats too much here. That could change in the days after President Trump’s and Vice President JD Vance’s inauguration on Monday, as sources close to Senate leaders say Republicans are quickly growing frustrated with Democrat obstruction and deep state efforts to slow-walk Trump’s cabinet picks.
The Senate Intelligence Committee requires nominees it considers to submit multiple elements of paperwork. The first element is Office of Government Ethics filings which Gabbard has already submitted. The second is the FBI background check, and the window for that to be finalized is quickly closing. An agreement between the Trump Transition and the federal government limits the FBI background check timing to 14 days, and the FBI began its process with Gabbard around Jan. 8, per Senate sources. That means the documents should be in front of the committee by later this week, Wednesday at the latest, and as soon as that happens Cotton is expected to notice the hearing for exactly 7 days later.
But again, if Warner and the Democrats dropped their nonsense, Cotton could get the hearing scheduled faster—perhaps as early as Wednesday or Thursday of this week. That’s what happened with Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe, who actually had his hearing before the FBI documents were submitted and might even be confirmed by the full U.S. Senate by later on Monday depending on if Democrats consent to move forward. Ratcliffe has the votes for confirmation, and will be confirmed; the only question is whether the Senate Democrats agree to streamline the confirmation vote or resist speedy confirmation.
Interestingly, four years ago when former President Joe Biden’s pick for DNI was up for confirmation, the Senate agreed to confirm her–Avril Haines–literally on Inauguration Day. Haines got 84 votes, including from several of the Republicans who have yet to wholeheartedly endorse Gabbard. Haines has been a complete radical leftist, so there is zero justification for any Republican who voted for Haines not voting Gabbard. These include Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Todd Young (R-IN). Anything less than full support for Gabbard after they voted for Haines would be seen as a complete betrayal of the nation’s security and a demented denialism of the election results from November 5.
What’s more, the longer these establishment Republicans hold off on publicly backing Gabbard and the longer Democrats keep blowing through every procedural trick in the book to drag this out longer, they are harming national security and these senators would end up being personally responsible for emboldening bad actors on the world stage. In addition, there is a radical leftist who supports “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” who is currently serving as the acting DNI until such time as Gabbard is confirmed:
Of course, any Senate Republican who does not publicly back Gabbard at this time and work aggressively to speed up the confirmation process and pressure Democrats to get on board with moving quickly would be personally responsible for this insanity being installed at the office of the DNI in the Trump administration right now.
Breitbart News
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