Senate voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the new director of national intelligence.

The final tally was 52 to 48 with all Democrats voting in opposition, while Senator Mitch McConnell was the only Republican who voted no.

In a sharp statement that he released after the vote, the former leader of the Republican Party said this, quote,

the Senate's power of advice and consent is not an

option. It is an obligation. And one we cannot pretend to misunderstand. The nation should not have

to worry that the intelligence assessments the president receives are tainted by a director of

national intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment.

Adding quote, Edward Snowden's treasonous betrayal of the United States and its most sensitive

law intelligence, activities, endangered sources, methods, and lives.

Japan is among America's closest treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific, and the risk of conflict in the region is the product of Chinese aggression, not Western threat inflation.

Russia's escalation of its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine threatens American interests and is solely the responsibility of Vladimir Putin.

And trusting the coordination of the intelligence community to someone who struggles to acknowledge these facts is an unnecessary risk.

Jake Sherman's still with us. That is pretty sharp from Mitch McConnell.

I would say so. Mitch McConnell unplugged, I guess you could say,

Katie. I mean, listen, this is somebody who's now voted against Pete Hagseth for Defense Secretary

and for Tulsi Gabbard for DNI. Next up is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, as we all know,

we don't need to relitigate the whole thing, but has been skeptical,

rather, about the efficacy of vaccines. Mitch McConnell, of course, is a polio survivor. I don't know

how he's going to come down on that, but he's clearly not encumbered by the idea that he's a

Republican, he is a Republican, and that he needs to vote down the line for President

Trump. But I mean, listen, the entire rest of the Senate Republican Conference to a person

is supporting his nominees. And Trump has had a clean sweep here. I mean, he has got through

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