Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s pick to be the next director of national intelligence, endured a difficult hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday as lawmakers pressed her on her views on Edward Snowden, spying, Syria and Russia.

The former congresswoman and Army lieutenant colonel has been considered among the toughest lifts of Trump’s nominees, and based on the public portion of Thursday’s hearing, Gabbard remains in a tough spot. She likely needs to win a majority of the 17 committee votes — which could be difficult in its own right — to reach a floor vote.

Her two and a half hour public meeting with lawmakers came before a second hearing behind closed doors where she and lawmakers were able to discuss sensitive topics.

Here are five takeaways from her hearing.

Snowden dominates the discussion

Over and over, members of the panel from both sides of the aisle asked Gabbard about Snowden. And over and over, she came back with a repeated, stock answer that did not appear sufficient for them.

Senators had indicated for weeks that they were concerned about Gabbard’s past remarks regarding the disgraced National Security Agency contractor who leaked myriad classified documents.

Gabbard co-authored legislation supporting a pardon for him and supported a bill that would have given increased whistleblower protections for individuals accused of violating the Espionage Act — both of which were anathema to members on the Intelligence panel.

While Snowden came up several times during the first hour, it wasn’t until the second half of the hearing that the issue exploded, as Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked her twice if Snowden was a traitor. She demurred both times.

“My heart is with my commitment to our Constitution and our nation’s security,” Gabbard said, laying out four actions she would take to prevent another future Snowden-like leak.

“Senator, I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,” she said after Lankford asked a second time.

Those answers prompted Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) to ask the question three additional times before letting loose on Gabbard for her inability to give a “yes” or “no” answer.

“This is when the rubber hits the road. This is not a moment for social media. This is not a moment to propagate conspiracy theories or attacks on journalism in the United........

© The Hill