If you thought about the worst possible choice for director of National Intelligence, former Democratic-turned-Republican Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard would be high up there. However, that’s exactly who President-elect Donald Trump nominated to head the supervision of the United States’s intelligence apparatus.

Republican senators, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Senate Majority Leader-elect Sen. John Thune (R-SD), now face a choice between putting the nation first or submission to Trump. After all, if Gabbard is approved, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an ideological sympathizer holding the keys to the U.S. intelligence community crown jewels. This is not an exaggeration.