Relatively few approve of Hegseth, Gabbard picks: Survey

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Army veteran Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominees for director of national intelligence and Defense secretary respectively, are relatively unpopular among Americans, according to a recent survey.

The AP-NORC Research Center poll, released Thursday, shows 36 percent of respondents say they disapprove of Hegseth, while only 17 percent approve of him. The poll also shows 29 percent disapprove of Gabbard, while 21 percent do not feel the same way.

Another 37 percent said they didn't know enough about the nominees to have an opinion.

Both nominees have faced scrutiny for comments or allegations in their past.

Gabbard — who served in the House for eight years as a Democrat — has faced criticism for remarks she's made about the Russia-Ukraine war that were sympathetic to Moscow and echoed by Russian state news, which has praised her nomination.

She's also facing an uphill battle for confirmation following her 2017 visit with the former Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who was just driven from power as his regime collapsed at the hands of rebels. Gabbard, who recently joined the Republican Party, said in the past that Assad was not an enemy of the U.S. — though she later labeled him a “brutal dictator.”

The remarks have gained renewed attention in recent days, as the Syrian government crumbled, and Assad was driven out of the country.

Hegseth, meanwhile, spent much of last week on Capitol Hill and is back this week, meeting with senators to allay any concerns about his background, including allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive alcohol use.

The survey, conducted Dec. 5-9, features 1,251 adults in the U.S and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

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