Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pushed back in his confirmation hearing after he was grilled on the president’s pardoning of January 6 rioters.
"So do you think that America is safer because the 1600 people have been given an opportunity to come out of serving their sentences and live in our communities again?" Dem. Sen. Dick Durbin asked Patel in Thursday’s hearing, pressing him on January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers having their sentences commuted earlier this month.
Patel responded with a reference to Biden’s decision in the final hours of his presidency to free Leonard Peltier, a far-left activist convicted in the 1975 murders of two FBI special agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, who were gunned down in a shootout in South Dakota.
"Senator, I have not looked at all 1600 individual cases," Patel said.
"I have always advocated for imprisoning those that cause harm to our law enforcement and civilian communities. I also believe America is not safer because President Biden's commutation of a man who murdered two FBI agents. Agent Coler and Williams family deserve better than to have the man that point blank range fired a shotgun into their heads and murdered them, released from prison. So it goes both ways."
Durbin responded by downplaying the comparison between Peltier and January 6 rioters.
"Leonard Peltier was in prison for 45 years," Durbin responded. "He's 80 years old, and he was sentenced to home confinement. So he's not free. As you might have just suggested. He killed two FBI agents. That he did, and he went to prison for it and should have. My question to you, though, is, do you think America's safer because President Trump issued these pardons to 1600 of these criminal defendants, many of whom violently assaulted our police in capital?"
Patel responded, "Senator, America will be safe when we don't have 200,000 drug overdoses in two years, America will be safe when we don't have 50 homicides a day."
Conservatives and supporters of Patel on social media praised Patel for his response.
"Brutal reality check," political commentator and Confirm 47 executive director Camryn Kinsey posted on X.
In his opening remarks, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said, "Public trust in the FBI is low."
"Only 41% of the American public thinks the FBI is doing a good job. This is the lowest rating in a century," he continued.
Grassley touted Patel's experience as a public defender and at the Justice Department, as well as his involvement in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
Patel has "managed large intelligence and defense bureaucracies, identified and countered national security threats, prosecuted and defended criminals," Grassley said. "He has done this while fighting for transparency and accountability in the government," giving him "precisely the qualifications we need at this time" to head up the bureau.
Patel's nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the "deep state."
Fox News Digital's Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report
Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard slammed the Democratic narrative that she is a puppet for U.S. and world leaders, saying she is loyal to only God, the Constitution and her own conscience in her opening remarks before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
"Before I close, I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country," Gabbard said.
"Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States. Accusing me of being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters," she continued.
Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday as part of her confirmation process to serve as director of national intelligence during President Donald Trump's second term.
"The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed," she continued of the accusations against her.
"The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change. The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents, is I refuse to be their puppet. I have no love for Assad or Gadhafi or any dictator. I just hate al Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels."
Gabbard was elected to the U.S. House representing Hawaii during the 2012 election cycle, serving as a Democrat until 2021. She did not seek re-election to that office after throwing her hat in the 2020 White House race.
Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, registering as an independent, before becoming a member of the GOP this year and offering her full endorsement of Trump amid his presidential campaign before Trump named her his DNI pick.
"If confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will continue to live by the oath that I have sworn at least eight times in my life, both in uniform, as and as a member of Congress. I will support and defend our God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same," she said.
President Donald Trump's FBI director nominee Kash Patel was grilled Thursday over the FBI’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia connections in the aftermath of the 2016 election, known colloquially by its nickname "Crossfire Hurricane," and which has emerged as something of a partisan lightning rod in the years since the investigation was closed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, for his part, used most of his allotted time Thursday to grill Patel over his views on the investigation, which he has railed against as politically motivated and a "disgusting" use of FBI resources.
Patel was tapped in 2017 by then-House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to join the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe— an investigation that was widely praised by Republicans as helping discredit the FBI's inquest.
"Is it fair to say that the people in charge of investigating Crossfire Hurricane hated Trump's guts?" Graham asked Patel on Thursday during his confirmation hearing.
Graham added, "Do you believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most disgusting episodes in FBI history of a corrupt investigation led by corrupt people who wanted to take Donald Trump down?"
After Patel responded affirmatively, Graham continued to excoriate what he sees as the politicization of the FBI, which he claimed is "ignoring evidence, making up evidence, and lying to get Donald Trump."
"FBI agents were telling anybody and everybody would listen that [the investigation] is not reliable, this is not trustworthy. But they plowed on," Graham added.
"That's why you're in this chair today to fix that," said Graham. "Without Crossfire Hurricane, this guy wouldn't be here."
Patel is a close ally of President Trump and served in the first Trump administration both as a deputy assistant and as the senior director for counterterrorism.
His nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the "deep state."
He has since attempted to clarify some of those remarks.
Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll questioned whether Army helicopters should be flying training missions in one of the nation’s most congested flight paths after Wednesday's tragic Washington, D.C.-area collision.
"It’s an accident that seems to be preventable," Driscoll, an Army veteran, said during a Thursday confirmation hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"There are appropriate times to take risk and inappropriate times to take risk," he said. "I think we need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be at an airport like Reagan."
Sixty-four people were aboard the American Airlines flight inbound from Wichita, Kan., which collided with an Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter just before it was set to touch down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Authorities do not believe anyone survived.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the three soldiers who were aboard the chopper were a "fairly experienced crew" doing a "required annual night evaluation."
"We anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the quarter at the right altitude at the time of the incident," he said.
In a blunt Truth Social post, President Donald Trump called the crash "a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented."
"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time," Trump wrote. "It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane."
Ronald Reagan Washington National, an airport owned by the federal government, has been the subject of debate for years. It has one of the shortest runways in the industry, yet Congress approved additional flight slots in 2024 as part of its Federal Aviation Administration bill. The flight from Wichita, Kan., had just been added in 2024.
The airport faces complicated aviation logistics near hyperprotected airspace near the Pentagon, White House and Capitol, but lawmakers have pushed to keep it open due to the convenience of its proximity to D.C.
"We’re gonna have to work together to make sure that never happens again," Driscoll said in his Thursday confirmation hearing, promising to take a hard look at what training was needed, particularly amid the Army's increased use of its vertical lift aircraft.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight, according to air traffic control audio. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ" — apparently telling the chopper to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass. There was no reply. Seconds after that, the aircraft collided.
Military helicopters regularly cross over the D.C.-area airport's flight paths to ferry senior government officials over the Potomac River into D.C. No senior officials were on board the downed Black Hawk, according to the Army.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, grilled President Donald Trump's DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard over her previous remarks praising whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"Until you are nominated by the president to be the DNI, you consistently praised the actions of Edward Snowden, someone, I believe, jeopardized the security of our nation and then, to flaunt that, fled to Russia," Warner asked of Gabbard on Thursday morning.
"You even 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, and in this case, I'm a lot closer to the chairman's words where he said Snowden is, quote, ‘an egotistical serial liar and traitor' who, quote, ‘deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life.’ Ms. Gabbard is simple, yes or no question. Do you still think Edward Snowden is brave?"
"Mr. Vice Chairman, Edward Snowden broke the law. I do not agree with or support with all of the information and intelligence that he released, nor the way in which he did it. There would have been opportunities for him to come to you on this committee, or seek out the IG to release that information. The fact is, he also, even as he broke the law, released information that exposed egregious, illegal and unconstitutional programs that are happening within our government," Gabbard responded.
In 2013, Snowden was working as an IT contractor for the National Security Agency when he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with three journalists and transferred to them thousands of pages of classified documents about the U.S. government’s surveillance of its citizens.
"I'm making myself very clear. Edward Snowden broke the law. He released information about the United States government," Gabbard continued as she defended her position.
"If I may just finish my thoughts, Senator," Gabbard continued, as Warner spoke over her. "In this role that I've been nominated for, if confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will be responsible for protecting our nation's secrets. And I have four immediate steps that I would take to prevent another Snowden-like leak."
Gabbard has previously lauded Snowden, including during an appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast in 2019.
"If it wasn’t for Snowden, the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans," she said on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast at the time.
Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning as part of her confirmation process to serve as the second Trump administration's director of national intelligence.
Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
The Senate is set for a Thursday confirmation vote for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
The upper chamber voted to advance Burgum’s nomination to a confirmation vote on Wednesday by a 78–20 margin.
Burgum appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in mid-January, where he told lawmakers that national security issues and the economy were his top two priorities for leading the agency.
"When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn't reduce demand," Burgum said in his opening statement Jan. 16. "It just shifts production to countries like Russia and Iran, whose autocratic leaders not only don't care at all about the environment, but they use their revenues from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies."
Lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questioned Burgum on whether he would seek to drill for oil in national parks if Trump asked him to.
"As part of my sworn duty, I'll follow the law and follow the Constitution. And so you can count on that," Burgum said. "And I have not heard of anything about President Trump wanting to do anything other than advancing energy production for the benefit of the American people."
Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024. He also launched a presidential bid for the 2024 election in June 2023, where energy and natural resources served as key issues during his campaign.
Burgum appeared during the first two Republican presidential debates, but didn’t qualify for the third and ended his campaign in December 2023. He then endorsed Trump for the GOP nomination a month later ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Aubrie Spady, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
EXCLUSIVE: WASHINGTON—A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication, whistleblower disclosures obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed.
That investigation into Trump was formally opened at the FBI on April 13, 2022, and was known inside the bureau as "Arctic Frost," Fox News Digital has learned.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson shared internal FBI emails and predicating documents — legally protected whistleblower disclosures — exclusively with Fox News Digital.
The senators say the documents prove the genesis of the federal election interference case brought against Trump began at the hands of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.
Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2024 that Thibault had been fired from the FBI after he violated the Hatch Act in his political posts on social media. Previous whistleblowers claimed that Thibault had shown a "pattern of active public partisanship," which likely affected investigations involving Trump and Hunter Biden.
Grassley first publicly revealed the existence of the whistleblower disclosures during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to serve as FBI director, Kash Patel, on Thursday.
One email, obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed Thibault communicating with a subordinate agent on Feb. 14, 2022.
Thibault said: "Here is draft opening language we discussed," and attached material that would later become part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case.
Another email, sent by Thibault on Feb. 24, 2022, to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, John Crabb, states: "I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject."
Sources told Fox News Digital, though, that Thibault took the action to open the investigation and involve Trump, despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his role — only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations.
Another email, sent on the same day, notes that he would seek approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to open the case.
Next, an email on Feb. 25, 2022, sent by a subordinate agent, Michelle Ball, to Thibault states that they added Trump and others as a criminal subject to the case.
Thibault responded: "Perfect."
The fifth email, reviewed by Fox News Digital, reveals Thibault emailing a version of an investigative opening for approval. However, this email did not include Trump as a criminal subject.
The sixth email, from April 11, 2022, shows Thibault approving the opening of Arctic Frost, and the next email, on April 13, 2022, was from an FBI agent to Thibault stating that the FBI deputy director approved its opening.
Another email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows Thibault emailing DOJ official John Crabb notifying him that the elector case was approved.
Crabb responded, "Thanks a lot. Let’s talk next week."
"Between March 22 and April 13, other versions of the document opening the investigation existed, because a ninth email shows that the FBI General Counsel’s office made edits on March 25," Grassley said during Patel's confirmation hearing Thursday. "Was Trump still removed as an investigative subject? If so, which Justice Department and FBI officials – other than Jack Smith – later added him for prosecution?"
The email records appear to show that an official in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, Richard Pilger, reviewed and approved the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation, authorizing DOJ to move forward with a full field criminal and grand jury investigation that ultimately transformed into Special Counsel Jack Smith's Trump-elector case.
Grassley, in 2021, published a report which raised concerns regarding Pilger’s record at DOJ.
Fox News Digital first reported in July 2022 thatGrassley warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that Thibault and Pilger were "deeply involved in the decisions to open and pursue election-related investigations against President Trump."
At the time, whistleblowers told Grassley that the Thibault-Pilger investigation's predicating document was based on information from "liberal nonprofit American Oversight."
In the investigation’s opening memo sent to the upper levels of the DOJ for approval, however, whistleblowers claimed Thibault and Pilger "removed or watered-down material connected to the aforementioned left-wing entities that existed in previous versions and recommended that a full investigation — not a preliminary investigation — be approved."
Based on Smith’s scope memo, Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, wrote that the Thibault-Pilger investigation was included in the special counsel’s jurisdiction.
They also pointed out that Smith had a prior relationship with Pilger. Smith was in charge of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Unit while Pilger was in charge of the Election Crimes Branch.
Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, began sounding the alarm that Special Counsel Jack Smith was "overseeing an investigation that was allegedly defective in its initial steps and an investigation which his former subordinate [Pilger] was involved in opening."
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith, a former Justice Department official, as special counsel in November 2022.
Smith, a former assistant U.S. attorney and chief to the DOJ's public integrity section, led the investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents after leaving the White House and whether the former president obstructed the federal government's investigation into the matter.
Smith also was tasked with overseeing the investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith charged Trump in both cases, but Trump pleaded not guilty.
The classified records case was dismissed in July 2024 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.
Smith charged Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to dismiss the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request.
Grassley, during the confirmation hearing on Thursday, said he is requesting "the production of all records on this matter to better understand the full fact pattern and whether other records exist."
EXCLUSIVE: House Republican leadership is encouraging lawmakers to back up President Donald Trump's desire to return the Panama Canal to U.S. ownership, a new memo suggests.
The House GOP Policy Committee, led by Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the No. 5 House Republican leader, sent the document to legislative directors across the conference on Wednesday.
The two-page memo, simply titled "Panama Canal," begins by highlighting Trump's past comments about China's influence over the Panama Canal and his goal of "taking it back."
It also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be visiting Panama on his first trip as Trump's top diplomat.
The memo starts with details of the history of the U.S. and the Panama Canal. "The Panama Canal was built by the U.S. between 1904 and 1914. The canal was leased to the U.S. for nearly 75 years under the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 which established the Panama Canal Zone and the subsequent construction of the Panama Canal."
It also points out that it was under the late former President Jimmy Carter that Panama was given control of the canal, via treaties later criticized by Trump.
The treaties with Carter "gave the U.S. the permanent explicit right to intervene to keep the canal open in the event of any threat that may interfere with the canal’s continued neutral service to ships from all nations," the memo said before laying out arguments for why Republicans believe Panama has since violated its end of the deal.
"About 5% of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, saving 6,835 miles off a journey that would otherwise require a long and dangerous trip skirting the southern tip of South America," the memo states. "The United States is Panama’s largest provider of foreign direct investment—$3.8 billion annually."
Meanwhile, "Chinese companies now operate ports at both ends of the canal. Chinese construction companies in 2018 funded a $1.4 billion bridge project spanning the canal," it reads.
"The treaties require that transit fees be ‘just, reasonable, equitable, and consistent with international law,"’ and that Panama maintain the canal’s permanent neutrality," the memo said. "The high fees charged by Panama as well as Panama’s openness to investment by the Chinese Communist Party in the canal zone are likely both in breach of the terms of the treaties."
Congress has already granted the president wide authority over international commerce in the event of an emergency, but GOP lawmakers have signaled they want to ease those guardrails further.
Main Street Caucus Chairman Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., introduced a bill earlier this month to let Trump re-purchase the Panama Canal for the U.S. A short while later, freshman Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., unveiled legislation to widen Trump’s non-emergency tariff power.
Additionally, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has a bill to authorize Trump to enter into negotiations to buy Greenland.
The memo from Hern’s policy committee is notable, however, as an apparent subtle marching order to the House GOP conference to continue down that path.
It could also likely embolden Republican lawmakers to find legislative avenues to further back up Trump’s push to purchase the canal, particularly given the Panamanian government’s opposition to the U.S. president’s plan.
President Donald Trump suggested the horrific collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., late Wednesday could have been prevented.
"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time," Trump posted on Truth Social early Thursday morning.
"It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!"
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan National Airport (DCA) around 9 p.m. local time. The jet was operating as Flight 5342 for American Airlines, and it departed from Wichita, Kansas.
There were 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the American Airlines flight and three Army soldiers on the Black Hawk. Those aboard the plane included "several members" of U.S. Figure Skating, including athletes, coaches and family members who had just attended the U.S. Figure Skating Championships held in Wichita from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26.
The exact number of injuries and fatalities has not yet been confirmed.
At the time of the crash, Reagan National Airport reported clear skies, visibility of 10 miles and winds sustained out of the northwest at 16 mph, gusting to 26 mph. The temperature was 50 degrees.
Nearly 300 first responders deployed to the freezing Potomac River, where the wreckage of the plane lies partially submerged for search and rescue operations, but hope of finding survivors is fading. The temperature in the river was 37 degrees on Wednesday night.
Vice President JD Vance took to social media Wednesday night to address the collision and urge prayer for those involved.
"Please say a prayer for everyone involved in the mid-air collision near Reagan airport this evening. We're monitoring the situation, but for now let's hope for the best," he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and the U.S. Army have each launched probes into the deadly collision.
"Tonight, as our first responders continue their efforts, we are sending our love and prayers to the families, loved ones, and communities who are experiencing loss during this terrible tragedy," she wrote on X.
The airport remains closed until 11 a.m. this morning following the nearby collision last night between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter.
"What a terrible night this has been," Trump said. "God bless you all!"
Tulsi Gabbard doesn't currently have enough votes to advance out of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Fox News Digital has learned.
The former Democrat representative's nomination to be director of national intelligence (DNI) under President Donald Trump is in danger as she lacks enough Republican support on the committee, sources confirmed.
Before heading to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, Trump's picks all have hearings and their nominations are voted on at the committee level. Gabbard's confirmation hearing will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday.
So far, no Trump nominees have failed to advance out of their respective committees.
A senior Intel Committee aide confirmed to Fox News Digital that Gabbard does not currently have a majority of its members' votes, which are necessary to move to the full Senate.
According to the source, half of the Republicans on the coveted committee are not sold on Trump's DNI pick.
A Senate source familiar told Fox News Digital, "Some members are undecided."
"Not true that [they] are NOs," they clarified.
The source confirmed that the undecided senators in question are Republicans.
A spokesperson for Gabbard told Fox News Digital in a statement, "Anonymous sources are going to continue to lie and smear to try and take down the President’s nominees and subvert the will of the American people and the media is playing a role in publishing these lies. That doesn’t change the fact that Lt. Col. Gabbard is immensely qualified for this role and we look forward to her hearing."
The senior committee aide shared that the reasons for GOP uncertainty include her previous Section 702 stance, her past meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her past defense of Edward Snowden.
"It’s about judgment," they said.
Gabbard will likely need every Republican vote to move past the committee, assuming Democrats will vote against her.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., serves as chair of the committee alongside other Republican members Jim Risch of Idaho, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Jerry Moran of Kansas, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Todd Young of Indiana and Ted Budd of North Carolina.
Lankford recently came out in support of Gabbard after she reversed her position on a controversial intelligence gathering tool known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Neither the White House nor Cotton's office provided comments to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
Fox News Digital reached out to multiple Republican Senate offices for comment.
As Gabbard's confirmation fate hangs in the balance, there is reportedly a push by some Trump-aligned Republican senators to waive the committee's rules in order to open the vote on Gabbard's nomination, as Politico reported. This would mean each senator's vote is accessible to the public.
The Intel Committee's rules stipulate that the vote is conducted in a closed meeting and a tally is released afterward. The vote is expected to go forward in a closed manner, in accordance with the rules.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is back on Capitol Hill for a second day of Senate confirmation hearings after a grilling by Democrats during a contentious first day.
On Wednesday, in front of the Senate Finance Committee, which will vote on Kennedy's confirmation, there were plenty of verbal fireworks over past controversial comments by the vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump.
But Kennedy's uneven performance didn't appear to do damage to his confirmation, as no Republican on the panel voiced opposition to his nomination to lead 18 powerful federal agencies that oversee the nation's food and health. Those agencies include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Democrats on the committee repeatedly pointed to Kennedy's controversial vaccine views, including his repeated claims in recent years linking vaccines to autism, which have been debunked by scientific research.
They also spotlighted Kennedy's service for years as chair or chief legal counsel for Children's Health Defense, the nonprofit organization he founded that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times, including a challenge over the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children.
"Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He's made it his life's work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines," Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel, charged in his opening statement.
The senator also pointed to past Kennedy vaccine comments in podcasts, including one from 2020 when he said he would "pay anything" to be able to go back in time and not vaccinate his kids.
"Are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine? Or did you lie on all those podcasts?" Wyden asked.
Pushing back in a heated exchange, Kennedy said the statements he made on podcasts have "been repeatedly debunked."
And he vowed he would do nothing to prevent Americans from obtaining certain vaccines.
"I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking anything," Kennedy said.
Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado accused Kennedy of "peddling half-truths, peddling false statements."
And Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has known Kennedy for decades, dating back to their days as law school students and roommates at the University of Virginia, told his friend, "Frankly, you frighten people."
Kennedy was also heckled multiple times near the start of the hearing.
As Kennedy delivered his opening comments and said, "News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety," a protester shouted, "You lie."
The heckler was led out of the hearing room by Capitol Police, as was a second protester minutes later.
And another protester was spotted in the audience holding a sign reading, "Vaccines Save Lives, No RFK JR."
The 71-year-old Kennedy, a scion of the nation's most storied political dynasty, launched a long-shot campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination against President Joe Biden in April 2023. But six months later, he switched to an independent run for the White House.
Kennedy made major headlines again last August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump. While Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.
Trump announced soon after the November election that he would nominate Kennedy to his Cabinet to run HHS.
In the two months since Trump's announcement, it's not just Democrats who've raised questions about Kennedy's confirmation. Social conservative Republicans took issue with his past comments in support of abortion rights.
"My belief is we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn't have the government involved, even if it's full term," Kennedy said as he ran for president.
But since endorsing Trump, Kennedy has walked back his stance on abortion. And in an exchange Wednesday with Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Kennedy said, "I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy."
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a former two-time Democrat presidential candidate, argued that Kennedy made a "major U-turn" on abortion.
Kennedy seemed to struggle when answering questions about how he would reform Medicare and Medicaid, the massive government healthcare programs used by millions of older, disabled and low-income Americans. He made misstatements on how Medicaid works, with senators offering corrections.
"I don’t have a broad proposal for dismantling the program," Kennedy said of Medicaid.
And he said Trump hadn't asked him to cut the program but rather "asked me to make it better."
Kennedy, whose outspoken views on Big Pharma and the food industry have also sparked controversy, vowed that "if confirmed, I will do everything in my power to put the health of Americans back on track."
While Democrats may find common ground with Kennedy's aim to shift the focus of the agencies he would oversee toward promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including overhauling dietary guidelines, taking aim at ultra-processed foods and getting to the root causes of chronic diseases, Kennedy lamented that they oppose him because he's Trump's nominee.
"Now they’re against me because anything that President Trump does, any decision he makes, has to be lampooned, derided, discredited, marginalized, vilified," Kennedy said.
With Republicans controlling the Senate by a 53-47 majority, Kennedy can only afford to lose the support of three GOP senators if Democrats unite against his confirmation. During Wednesday's hearing, no Republicans appeared to oppose the nomination.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina appeared to lean into the Democrats' attacks on Kennedy by asking, "I got a real quick question for you: Are you a conspiracy theorist?"
Kennedy answered that it "is a pejorative that's applied to me mainly to keep me from asking difficult questions of powerful interests."
GOP Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a chemical engineer, noted that there were several Republican doctors on the committee.
"We believe in science. I’m thankful that you do, too," Daines said.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who said he had a "frank conversation" with Kennedy about immunizations when they met this month, didn't ask about vaccines during the committee hearing. Instead, he kept his questions about federal healthcare programs, including Medicare.
Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin took aim at Democrats on the committee for what he claimed was "hostility on the other side. … I'm disappointed with it."
Following Wednesday's hearing, Democrats kept up their criticism.
"I think you saw today that he's not backing down from any of his really crazy, loony conspiracy beliefs," Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters.
And Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who is thought to be one of the few Democrats who may support Kennedy's confirmation, said, "I don't think it went well for him."
But GOP Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, who sits on the Finance Committee, pointed to Democrats on the panel and said, "I understand their concerns about vaccines. I think Bobby put those concerns to bed."
And Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana told reporters that Kennedy "did great today. I expect him to do great tomorrow."
