President Donald Trump nominee Tulsi Gabbard faces repeated questions about Edward Snowden, surveillance law in confirmation hearing. The public hearing wrapped after nearly three hours. Senators will now ask her questions in a closed session to allow for classified information to be discussed.

• President Trump pick Tulsi Gabbard, to be director of national intelligence, testified on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee at 10 a.m. for her confirmation hearing.
• The nomination of Gabbard is in danger as she faces skepticism from senators over her decision to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017, her past push to pardon National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, her comments about Russia's war in Ukraine, and her past opposition to renewing a key government surveillance authority, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
• Republicans and Democrats alike questioned Gabbard on her views of Snowden and whether she believed he was a traitor. She declined to say she believed he was a traitor, repeating that she felt he had broken the law and reiterating a point that she has made in the past, that he exposed practices that have resulted in the reform of 702.

Kirsten Gillibrand asks Gabbard about TikTok

New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand questioned Gabbard about her views on TikTok.

"Your past statements have essentially said that requiring domestic ownership of TikTok is a violation of civil liberties and the national security concerns are complete BS," Gillibrand said. "Can you explain why you have this view on TikTok?"

In reply, Tulsi Gabbard said her position was "centered around the protection of Americans' First Amendment rights and the lack of data privacy legislation."

"There were other provisions within that legislation that granted very vague and serious, grandiose authorities to the president on deciding which private companies are or are not a national security threat," she said.

An executive order earlier this month signed by President Trump directing the Justice Department to not enforce a law that effectively bans TikTok for 75 days. Many lawmakers and national security officials have warned that it poses a national security threat to the U.S. because of the amount of data TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, collects on U.S. users.

Gabbard explains why she now backs surveillance law, FISA Section 702, as "essential for our national security," though she tried to repeal it

Tulsi Gabbard regarding to the reforms made to a controversial surveillance law known as FISA Section 702 said have allayed some of her past criticisms. She called it a "unique security tool and capability that is essential for our national security" and said "there are a number of areas that we would be blind from a national security perspective, without this capability."

In Congress, Gabbard tried to repeal the controversial law, which was first authorized in 2008.

U.S. officials view that the surveillance tool is essential to protecting national security because it helps disrupt terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, and espionage activities. The law authorizes the U.S. government's warrantless collection of communications of targeted foreign individuals overseas. It does not allow U.S. citizens to be targeted, but their communications are swept up when they are in contact with a targeted foreigner.

According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI searches of U.S. citizens' electronic data significantly dropped in recent years, from about 3 million in 2021 to about 57,000 in 2023. The decline followed a series of major reforms after lawmakers and civil liberties advocates accused the FBI of abusing its authority.

The reauthorized surveillance law for another two years in 2024 after months of clashes over whether the FBI should be required to obtain a warrant to search the collected data for Americans' information.