The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a hearing to review the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence.  The Jan. 30 hearing comes after Democrats resisted the scheduling of an earlier hearing, saying they still didn’t have the full slate of background checks, ethics disclosures and paperwork on a candidate whose overall qualifications have sparked their concern. If confirmed, Gabbard, a former Democratic lawmaker, would lead the agency responsible for overseeing all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies.  Gabbard is one of President Trump's most contentious nominees, with lawmakers pointing to her lack of experience in the intelligence field, and perhaps more significantly, her relationships with U.S. adversaries. She met in 2017 with Syria leader Bashar Assad, who was recently overthrown. The meeting came after allegations Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. She has also been a high-profile defender of national security leaker Edward Snowden and has echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric about the Ukraine war. But she had made headway with some lawmakers in recent weeks by reversing her opinion on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, now supporting the spy tool that allows the U.S. to spy on foreigners located abroad without a warrant.  She has also been seeking to explain her past support of Snowden, saying she didn’t feel the intelligence community had sufficient channels for raising concerns.  That explanation has not rested well with all Intelligence Committee lawmakers, however, who have called the NSA leaker a traitor.