Can a Critic of the Deep State Run the Deep State?

President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next director of national intelligence is in trouble. In the hours-long public session of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday, Tulsi Gabbard could not bring herself to agree with senators from both parties that the notorious leaker, Edward Snowden, betrayed his country.

Before the hearing, Gabbard had won the support of the committee’s chairman, Senator Tom Cotton, and most Senate Republicans. But as the hearing dragged on, senators grew visibly uneasy. The usually mild-mannered Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, raised his voice in frustration at Gabbard’s equivocations about Snowden.