INFO:

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard about her defense of a national security whistleblower Thursday in her confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence. Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s vice chairman, displayed some of Gabbard’s past social media posts in which she praised Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified documents in 2013 and was indicted for espionage. “You 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,” Warner said, before calling him a traitor. He then asked Gabbard if she still believed Snowden was brave. “Mr. Vice Chairman, Edward Snowden broke the law,” Gabbard said, adding she didn’t support all of the information he released, “nor the way in which he did it.” She also said she believes he also exposed illegal programs and did not say whether she considered him brave, despite Warner’s pressing. Gabbard was questioned multiple times about her feelings toward Snowden throughout the hearing by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. Gabbard is a veteran of the Army National Guard of more than two decades who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait during her service. She does not have a background in intelligence and has come under fire as a nominee for her past positive stances on Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.