Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face tough questions about her past comments about Russia, Syria and a key government surveillance program as lawmakers vet her to lead the nation’s intelligence service.

Gabbard has put her life on the line in service to our nation, proudly represented her constituents in Congress, and is ready to continue her service as DNI.

EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of top former intelligence officials are urging members of the Senate to confirm President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, saying she will “begin undoing the gross politicization that has come to characterize intelligence bureaucracies,

With Democrats opposed and some Republican votes wavering, the committee could employ unusual maneuvers to advance Trump’s controversial pick for director of national intelligence.

Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence disregarded U.S. assessments of chemical weapons attacks and instead looked to contested academic research.

Ms. Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, was briefly subject to special scrutiny on airline flights last year, but not, officials say, for the partisan reasons she has alleged.

One expert says her views are ‘so wildly fringe that her potential appointment as DNI is genuinely alarming’, Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg write

Sir John Sawers raised concerns on Saturday about Gabbard's nomination to lead the U.S. intelligence community.

In 2015, Gabbard was part of a congressional trip led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., to the Turkish-Syrian border to see the impact of the war. As part of that trip, they visited Gaziantep, where civilians from Syria were receiving medical treatment across the border in Turkey.

Senators are expected to ask about her defense of the former government contractor, who released reams of data on U.S. surveillance programs and fled to Russia.

Gabbard is a rare Washington politician who defended the NSA whistleblower. But she has also changed positions and even political parties.