This story has been updated.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Tulsi Gabbard‘s nomination for director of national intelligence by the narrowest of margins.
Republicans united in endorsing Gabbard in a 9-8 vote.
Earlier in the day, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was passed out of the Senate Finance Committee by a similar party-line vote.
Gabbard’s endorsement comes after the Senate panel, including many GOP members, grilled her over her qualifications and questioned her over meetings with foreign leaders, including former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as her previous statements expressing sympathy for Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
She also declined to directly answer whether Edward Snowden, who exposed government secrets, is a traitor to the U.S.
Gabbard previously advocated for Snowden to be pardoned but did not recommend his pardon during the hearing.
Within minutes of the vote, Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote a “congratulations” to her in a post on X.
As the Deseret News previously reported, Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard and a former U.S. Democratic representative from Hawaii, pitched herself as an outsider and a disruptor who would strengthen intelligence agencies she deemed as devoid of the American people’s trust.
She is one of three controversial nominees still waiting to be confirmed. The other two are Kash Patel for FBI director and Kennedy for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
RFK Jr. also advances past committee
Kennedy also made it through committee in a vote earlier on Tuesday. The Senate Finance panel voted 14-13, along party lines.
Kennedy and Gabbard’s nominations now advance to the Senate floor.
Like Gabbard, Kennedy couldn’t afford to lose even one Republican on the Senate panel after heated hearings over two days last week, where he received pushback from both sides of the aisle.
As the Deseret News previously reported, the top GOP senator on the health committee, who also sits on the Senate Finance Committee, expressed his grave concerns about Kennedy’s nomination.
While concluding Kennedy’s confirmation hearing last week, Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, admitted he didn’t know if he would vote in support and promised to follow up over the weekend. He did follow through, as he revealed in a post on X ahead of the vote.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy said, before thanking Vice President JD Vance “for his honest counsel.”
“With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes,” he added.
The Louisiana senator’s qualms with Kennedy centered around the nominee’s “unfounded and misleading” views on vaccines, like their link to autism despite no scientific evidence for the same.
Kennedy repeatedly said he supports vaccines and isn’t looking to take them away while labeling himself as pro-safety instead of anti-vaccine. President Donald Trump also came to his defense, saying, “20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34. WOW! Something’s really wrong. We need BOBBY!!! Thank You! DJT,” in a post on Truth Social.
As NBC News notes, researchers say “increased screening and changing definitions of the condition” are the reason behind this spike in numbers.
During the hearings, Kennedy stated he is interested in forcing transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and reforming the food supply chain to “Make America Healthy Again,” branded after Trump’s platform.
His proposals surrounding food and nutrition enjoy bipartisan support, but his anti-vaccine stance is less popular.