Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) believes President Donald Trump should give Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) another shot at a Cabinet post, publicly recommending her for intelligence chief after Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation on Friday.
Banks, one of the president’s Senate allies, said in an X post that Stefanik would be a “great replacement” for Gabbard, who is stepping down as director of national intelligence in a month to help take care of her ailing husband.
Last year, Trump nominated Stefanik to be his ambassador to the United Nations, but her name was pulled abruptly over fears that a resignation from the House would imperil Republicans’ narrow majority.
That margin has only gotten slimmer since then. Republicans can only afford to lose two members on any party-line vote. But Banks emphasized that Stefanik would be “easily confirmable” in the Senate, where Republicans have shown an increasing willingness to buck the president on nominees.
Stefanik has served as a member of the House Intelligence Committee since 2017, making her one of its more senior members. In the interim, Trump has named Gabbard’s deputy, Aaron Lukas, as acting DNI.
Gabbard is the fourth Cabinet official to announce their departure from the administration this year, and though Reuters initially reported that she was pushed out of the job, the White House maintains her decision is due to her husband’s bone cancer diagnosis.
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Gabbard, one of the more dovish members of the Trump administration, had reportedly butted heads with the White House over the war in Iran.
Should Trump consider Stefanik as a replacement, it would mark the latest turn in what has been a chaotic year for her career. Stefanik launched a campaign for governor of New York after Trump withdrew her ambassador nomination, only to suspend her campaign in December. In bowing out of the race, Stefanik announced she would retire from the House at the end of this Congress.