Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

Tulsi Gabbard faces questions from Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican on the intelligence panel who could sink her nomination. Gabbard cannot afford to lose a single vote in this confirmation.

Collins has said that she is undecided on Gabbard's nomination and has raised concerns about the former Democratic lawmaker's views.

The Maine senator raises one of those issues immediately by asking whether Gabbard would push to pardon Edward Snowden, the NSA whisteblower whom she has praised in past.

"If confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence, my responsibility would be to ensure the security of our nation's secrets, and I would not take actions to advocate for any actions related to Snowden," Gabbard says.

Image source, Getty Images

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

Tulsi Gabbard, the unconventional pick to lead the US intelligence community, has been buoyed so far in her hearing with some strong endorsements.

She had a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee introduce her. And she has pushed back strongly against critics who have questioned her ability to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

In defence of her, senators have largely avoided addressing Gabbard's past views. Instead they are emphasising her military service and condemning attacks on her patriotism.

Senator Tom Cotton may also be trying to deflect criticism of her support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, by raising the decision by Trump's former National Security Adviser John Bolton to share sensitive conversations with the president in a book without approval.

"Will you commit that no-one who so abuses his past position and risks the exposure of classified information... will hold a security clearance again or be trusted with classified information again?" he asks.

Gabbard agrees.

Mike Wendling
US reporter

Let's switch back to the Kash Patel hearing, where he has been questioned about his associations with some characters on the far right.

One is Laura Loomer - Senator Durbin flashes up a picture with Patel and Loomer, an anti-Islam campaigner who is also reportedly friends with President Trump.

He also mentions that Patel has appeared on the Stew Peters podcast eight different times.

Peters is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who believes Covid vaccines are killing millions of people - the BBC met him in Florida in 2023.

Patel denies he's endorsing their views.

Vice-chairman Mark Warner is trying to turn the screw on Gabbard.

He questions her past statements about former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information about surveillance programmes then fled to Russia.

Warner asks if she still agrees that Snowden is "brave" and should be given a pardon for his actions.

Gabbard doesn't answer directly, but acknowledges Snowden "broke the law" while also exposing significant "egregious, illegal and unconstitutional" activity by the US intelligence community.

Warner calls Snowden a traitor and pushes her to answer yes or no, which she declines to do - repeating her statement about Snowden's actions being illegal.

Image source, Getty Images

Gabbard says she has spoken to senators on both sides of the aisle, who have expressed "bipartisan frustration" with recent failures in US intelligence.

She adds that these include the surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, failing to identify the source of Covid, or the "sudden takeover of Syria by Islamist extremists".

Gabbard then goes on to defend herself against "lies and smears" by those which "challenge my loyalty" to the US and the Constituion.

These attacks accuse her of "being Trump's puppet, Putin's puppet, Assad's puppet, a guru's puppet, Modi's puppet, not recognising the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters", she adds.

Gabbard goes on to say these are the same tactics used by some against Trump.

"The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.

"I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimising them to so called rebels."

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

Cotton, the leading Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has stressed a few times that he will have no patience for protesters.

Quite a few confirmation hearings have been disrupted by individuals and groups opposed to Trump's nominees.

"I will not tolerate disruptions or disturbances, either in favour of or in opposition to Miss Gabbard," he says.

"We all came to hear from Miss Gabbard, not from you."

Gabbard says she is "honoured and grateful" for Trump's decision to nominate her as Director of National Intelligence "at a time when trust in the intelligence community, unfortunately, is at an all-time low".

She says that "the most obvious example" of US intelligence failures is the invasion of Iraq, but she alleges that the intelligence community weaponised its role to undermine Trump in the past.

"The FBI and intelligence agencies were politicised by his opponents to undermine his presidency and falsely portray him as a puppet of Putin," she says.

She cites alleged abuses including that a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, was spied on, and how members of the intelligence community tried to dismiss reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop. She also tells the panel she was put on a secret domestic terror watchlist after she criticised Kamala Harris.

"The bottom line is this: this must end," she says.

"President Trump's re-election is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure and the weaponisation and politicisation of the intelligence community."

Mike Wendling
US reporter

We have another update from the Kash Patel hearing, where he is being questioned about whether he thinks nearly all of the rioters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 should have been pardoned by Donald Trump.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, outlines crimes committed by the rioters, including assaulting police officers at the Capitol and child abuse. One man, he says, had 38 criminal convictions.

"Was President Donald Trump wrong to give blanket clemency to the January 6 defendants?"

Patel responds: "I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement, including in that group, any violence against law enforcement on January 6."

Durbin pushes the nominee on this point, and Patel brings up some of the commutations that Joe Biden issued before he left the White House. But he declines to criticise Trump.

Image source, Reuters

In his opening statement, Kash Patel starts by talking about his family’s Indian roots and how they shaped his world view.

If confirmed, he says, “I will remain focused on the FBI’s core mission, that is to investigate fully wherever there is a constitutional factual basis to do so”.

Patel points to his work as a defence lawyer, terrorism prosecutor and as a congressional aide and says he exposed misconduct by the FBI in obtaining wiretapping warrants. He says public trust in the law-enforcement agency has eroded and lists two main priorities.

One is to tackle violent crime, which he says “is exploding in this country”. He also pledges to subject the FBI to “aggressive constitutional oversight”.

He’s striking a more moderate note than some of his past statements – there’s no mention of rooting out “deep state” operatives or what he has claimed are politically biased agents, though those topics are sure to come up in questioning.

Chuck Grassley, a Republican, has asked Trump's FBI director nominee Kash Patel about QAnon - some supporters of which had been present in the crowd that stormed the Capitol in 2021.

At its heart, QAnon is a wide-ranging, completely unfounded theory that says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.

Grassley asks if Patel is a "follower or promoter" to which Patel responds no.

Patel points to how he has publicly rejected "outright baseless conspiracy theories" adding that these must be addressed "head on" with the truth.

• For context, in an interview in 2022, Patel said: "The Q thing is a movement a lot of people attach themselves to [...] I disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but I agree with a lot of what that movement says."
• You can read more about QAnon here

Image source, Getty Images

Tulsi Gabbard has received a second introduction - this time from Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa.

She has focused on their time in the US military, combat deployments to Iraq and Kuwait and their political service in Congress. She addresses Gabbard's past as a Democrat.

Gabbard has "set aside partisan differences as a former Democrat member of Congress to answer the call to serve in a Republican administration", says Ernst.

She closes by saying to members of the Senate panel: "You know me. I trust Tulsi Gabbard. She will be honest with you.

"She will listen to your concerns. She will be receptive to your feedback, and rest assured, Lieutenant Colonel Gabbard loves this country."

Image source, Reuters

Over at the Kash Patel hearing, where he is being quizzed by senators in his efforts to be named the FBI director, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin shows his opposition to Patel's nomination.

Citing the "Hoover era" and the Watergate scandal, Durbin points to the "risk of political interference" in FBI investigations.

He continues to say that since 1935 the motto of the FBI has been "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity" - and that these are the Bureau's core values.

He says that after meeting with Patel he does not believe he "meet[s] the standard".

He suggests he has neither the "experience", "temperament" nor the "judgement" to lead the organisation.

A little later, he calls Patel someone who has "left behind a trail of grievances throughout his life, lashing out at anyone who disrespects him or doesn't agree with him".

Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the Senate intelligence panel, says Gabbard's past support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden undermines her credibility to lead the US intelligence community.

He notes that the director of national intelligence (DNI) determines the credibility of whistleblower complaints and delivers them to the US intelligence panel.

"What message would it send to have a DNI who would celebrate the work of a member of the IC [intelligence community] or a contractor that would... decide what's appropriate to leak?" Warner says.

"The world today is more complex and more dangerous than ever before, and we need serious people with sufficient experience to be able to navigate that complexity," he adds.

Richard Burr, a former chairman of the very same committee he is now addressing, introduces Gabbard and expresses support for her nomination.

He launches into a spirited defence of her patriotism and qualifications for the role, criticising those who question either of them.

The businessman and former Republican senator from North Carolina, claims there has been a "co-ordinated attempt to influence this nominee's support".

He says he was contacted by several journalists shortly after Trump nominated her, asking to "confirm one of the many rumours circulating" about her.

"I informed each journalist over a five-week period that the rumour shared with me was simply not true", Burr tells his former colleagues. "This was a co-ordinated effort to kill this nomination."

Brandon Livesay
Live page editor

There are many moving parts on Capitol Hill today. We're following three Senate confirmation hearings happening at the same time.

Tulsi Gabbard is Trump's pick to be his national security adviser. You can watch that hearing by clicking watch live at the top of this page.

Kash Patel is Trump's pick to be the FBI director. If you click the Watch & Listen button at the top of the page(it's next to the tab that says Live Reporting), you can watch that hearing live.

We'll be dipping in and out with text updates of all three hearings (Robert F Kennedy Jr also faces a hearing today).

Stick with us, we'll bring you the key moments from a big day on the Hill.

Image source, Reuters

Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, voices doubts that Tulsi Gabbard, 43, has the judgment to lead the US intelligence community.

"I continue to have significant concerns about your judgment and your qualifications to meet the standard set by law," the Virginia senator says.

He accuses her of defending foreign dictators, while assailing her calls to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and her blame of Nato for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He says he is concerned her confirmation could have a chilling effect on intelligence-sharing with other countries.

"It appears to me, you have repeatedly excused our adversaries' worst actions," he says. "Instead, often blamed them on the United States and those very allies."

Cotton, the Senate intelligence chairman, praises Gabbard's military service, combat tours and multiple FBI background checks to emphasise that her allegiance to the US should not be questioned, as some political opponents have done.

He says "he can only laugh" at critics who attack Gabbard's opposition to American interventionism abroad.

"No doubt she has some unconventional views," he acknowledges, though he argues her warnings against regime change have been vindicated in high-profile cases.

He says most countries around the world are not democratic and the US must "take our friends where we can find them".

"What matters in the end is less whether a country is democratic or non-democratic, and more whether the country is pro-American or anti-American," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton acknowledges that Gabbard has "generated a bit more interest and attention than do most nominees before this committee".

He says, however, that he would insist that she is "treated with the exact same respect, consideration and professionalism that we extended to every nominee".

He notes that Gabbard has met dozens of senators, completed the panel's questionnaire, and answered nearly 250 questions before today's hearing.

Image source, Getty Images

Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump nominated to serve as Director of National Intelligence, just received a key endorsement from Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton.

"I'm dismayed by the attacks on Ms Gabbard's patriotism and her loyalty to our country," he says as the hearing opens, referring to accusations from political foes that she has been a Russian asset.

Appearing on Fox News earlier in the morning, Cotton said he had been working with Gabbard on her nomination and looked forward to helping her "reform" the US intelligence community.

The Republican senator from Arkansas said the former Democratic lawmaker understood that “our intelligence community has grown too bloated, too bureaucratic, and it doesn’t do enough collection of intelligence”.

This is a huge boost for Gabbard's nomination, as Cotton has not agreed with many of her previous positions.

Senators are about to beginning quizzing Trump's pick for his national security adviser, Tulsi Gabbard.

It is likely to be a contentious hearing, given some of her past comments on Russia and Syria. You can tune in at the top of the page by hitting Watch Live.

We will continue to bring you more on how the nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, is faring in his own congressional hearing, so stick with us for text updates on that here.