Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump's pick to be director of national intelligence, will face tough questions from lawmakers Thursday over past comments about Russia and a 2017 visit with Syria's now-deposed leader. The back-and-forth during Gabbard's confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee could reveal whether she has successfully assuaged concerns from lawmakers of both parties or whether worries about her experience and background will sink her nomination to oversee 18 US intelligence agencies. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for president in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience, however, and has never run a government agency or department. It's Gabbard's comments, however, that have posed the biggest challenge to her confirmation. Gabbard has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine a