Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for director of national security, is slightly favored to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, according to odds from betting platform Polymarket.
Gabbard, a former Democrat who announced that she was joining the Republican Party during an appearance at a Trump rally in October, was controversially nominated by the president-elect to lead the country's intelligence agencies on November 13.
Doubts have lingered about Gabbard's likelihood of being confirmed, with the ex-congresswoman having faced criticism for making positive remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian leaders like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Polymarket, which was funded in part by longtime Trump backer Peter Thiel, showed Gabbard with a 53 percent chance of being confirmed by the Senate as of Wednesday night, despite the controversy.
Gabbard had the worst confirmation odds of any current Trump nominee on Polymarket. Fox News host Pete Hegseth, whose nomination as secretary of defense was also controversial, was the runner-up with a 63 percent chance of being confirmed.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Wednesday evening.
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was Trump's initial nominee for U.S. attorney general, was given a roughly one-in-five chance of being confirmed on Polymarket just days before he withdrew his nomination amid resistance from Senate Republicans.
Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the U.S. attorney general job shortly after the failure of the Gaetz nomination, which may have been the most controversial of all his Cabinet picks.
However, criticisms and confirmation doubts remain over the nominations of Gabbard, Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ashley Etienne, a former communications director to Vice President Kamala Harris, claimed during a CNN appearance earlier this month that Gaetz was acting as Trump's "sacrificial lamb" and would make it easier for Senate Republicans to confirm Gabbard.
"I think that Gaetz is a smoke screen," Etienne said. "I think he's gonna be a sacrificial lamb. My caution to Democrats in the Senate would be, keep your eye on the ball, as Tulsi Gabbard [is] in the position to do the most harm and danger to the American people."
After being challenged by CNN host Anderson Cooper, Etienne doubled down on the danger claim by arguing that the ex-congresswoman was a "sympathizer" to Putin and had been "compromised."
"She's gonna be housing American secrets," said Etienne. "It's widely held that she's compromised. She's a Putin sympathizer, she pals around the world with terrorists and dictators. Absolutely people should be very concerned about who's housing American secrets."
"The reality is that you can get any MAGA Republican lawyer to be the AG," she continued. "But the person who actually has, you know, American secrets, should be above reproach. And she's not."
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