WASHINGTON — Ask Sen. Alex Padilla and Sen.-elect Adam Schiff who troubles them the most about President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees and they quickly come up with the same answer: Tulsi Gabbard.

Trump nominated Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who’s been a vocal Trump backer in recent years, as director of national intelligence.

Padilla, D-Calif., said he was “truly shocked” by the choice because of what he told The Sacramento Bee was “her more than problematic, concerning history,”

Schiff, a veteran congressman who won a California U.S. Senate seat earlier this month, was House Intelligence Committee chairman from 2019 to 2023 and its top Democrat from 2015 to 2018.

“She has no experience in the intelligence community. She didn’t even serve on the intelligence committee,” he told The Bee.

A nominee needs 51 Senate votes for confirmation, and lawmakers are expected to formally consider Trump’s choices in January. Senators usually try to have those picks in place so they begin their jobs when the president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Republicans will start the confirmation process with two advantages. After the new Congress convenes Jan. 3, the GOP will have 53 of the 100 Senate seats. And tradition says that regardless of party, lawmakers tend to give the president his choices, figuring the public has spoken and wants a new administration.

That leaves Democrats in a tough position. While it’s not uncommon for the Senate to reject a presidential choice or two at the start of a term, Trump’s nominees have stirred more controversy than usual.

Padilla and Schiff

“The difference is we have a president-elect who is absolutely extreme and egregious in so many ways. I think the starting point for consideration is different because of that,” Padilla said.

Schiff had similar thoughts. “He was voted to be president. He gets to pick his people,” said the congressman, who for years has been a target of Trump’s rage and ridicule.

But, Schiff said, “He doesn’t have the right to appoint people who are incompetent, criminal or completely devoid of experience that present too great a risk to the country if they were handed the keys.”

The senators have questions about other nominees, mentioning Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Asked if they supported any nominee thus far, both mentioned Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who’s been chosen to serve as secretary of state.

“There’s a lot we do not agree on,” said Padilla. But he has found Rubio “serious in policy debates and discussions.”

Schiff also had praise. “I think Marco Rubio is eminently qualified,” he said.

If he serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold the confirmation hearing, Schiff said, “I would still want to put him through his bases and ask his positions and different things, but he’s unquestionably qualified and there are others.”

Gabbard, though, presents bigger issues for the California senators.

Gabbard’s record

Gabbard, 43, is an Army Reserve officer who served in the Iraq war as a member of the Hawaii National Guard. She supported liberal Democrat Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020.

Gabbard has stirred political ire for several actions. Seven years ago, she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. He has been accused of atrocities against thousands of people.

She blasted the Trump administration in 2020 for the killing of Iran military commander Qasem Soleimani, telling CNN it was an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”

Critics also say she has been too sympathetic to Russia. In 2022, after Gabbard criticized U.S. efforts to help Ukraine in the war against Russia, a Russian state media commentator called her “our girlfriend Tulsi.”

That year, Gabbard split with the Democrats over its policies on foreign affairs and anti-terrorism measures, and was a prominent Trump supporter.

As director of national intelligence, she would oversee the government’s 18 different spy agencies.

She’s picked up strong praise from some newly elected Republican senators. Sen.-elect Jim Banks, R-Indiana, tweeted that she’s “a patriot who has served our country for decades.” Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, called her a “brilliant pick.”

Among Senate veterans, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., served with Gabbard in the same Capitol Hill military reserve unit.

“While we have differences on foreign policy, I think she’s extremely bright and capable,” he said. “I look forward to working with her to keep America not only great but also safe.’

Gabbard has been critical of Schiff in the past. In 2021, she posted a video on X citing the January 6 Capitol riot by Trump supporters who tried to stop the electoral vote count. She said they were “behaving like domestic enemies of our country.”

Then she added, “But let’s be clear, the John Brennans, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style surveillance are also domestic enemies — and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob that stormed the Capitol.”

Brennan was Central Intelligence Agency director under President Barack Obama. Schiff had proposed legislation to create a federal domestic terrorism crime.

Schiff, who usually speaks in measured tones, becomes more animated when discussing Gabbard.

“She has a very questionable fondness for dictators who gas their own people and poisoning their own people like Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin,” he said.

He worried that if she is confirmed, employees will leave the intelligence agencies and allies will be more reluctant to share information.

Schiff called intelligence agency employees “incredibly patriotic, hardworking, bright people. A lot of them put themselves very much in harm’s way. They deserve a really good manager and need one and the country needs that. So I’m very concerned about that nomination.”

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