We're going to take a closer look now at President-elect Donald Trump's pick of former Democratic

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be the next Director of National Intelligence.

If confirmed, Gabbard would oversee 18 intelligence organizations, including the CIA and NSA.

But her nomination is expected to set off a confirmation fight since she has no experience in the intelligence world and has been accused of defending dictators and parroting Russian disinformation, which she denies.

We're joined now by Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Thanks for being with us.

So Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to clean house, he wants to overhaul the nation's

intelligence services.

We also know that he is rewarding fealty as he staffs these top positions.

So help us understand in that context what he sees in Tulsi Gabbard serving as Director of National Intelligence.

Well, as you noted, President Trump, President Trump is clearly looking for people who are loyal to him.

I'm not sure that that's fully different from any other president. I think there probably is an

extra concern for intelligence positions, because at their very core, the Director of National

Intelligence and the Director of CIA, although, of course, loyal to the President, are also there

in their positions to, as everyone has said, speak truth to power, make sure that

they are providing an objective analysis of the circumstances and allowing the president

to make the policy choices that he's empowered to do. And I think some of the concern here is

whether Tulsi Gabbard has both the expertise and the experience, but also the inclination

to speak truth to power.

The role of Director of National Intelligence was created after 9-11 because there was a concern

that other intelligence agencies weren't sharing information, that information had been siloed.

And so the federal government created this role.

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