Donald Trump’s Senate allies are racing to defend Tulsi Gabbard, his pick to lead US intelligence services, in what could become the next test of the president-elect’s bid to install provocative nominees — and of any Republican appetite to stop him.

       Gabbard and another contentious Trump pick — Pete Hegseth, who has been tapped to lead the Defense Department — came under sharpened scrutiny Sunday as the spotlight shifted from Matt Gaetz, Trump’s toppled choice to be attorney general.

       Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth warned of Gabbard: “I think she’s compromised.” The Illinois senator brought up Gabbard’s visit to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and policy positions where she’s appeared to mirror Russian propaganda talking points.

       But Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, speaking to Dana Bash on the same show, said such claims were “ridiculous” and “outright dangerous” and called for Duckworth to retract them.

       The extraordinary public debate over whether a president-elect’s pick to oversee US intelligence agencies is a compromised asset is a taste of the massive upheaval that likely awaits next year in his second term.

       But it’s far from the only question that Trump’s political comeback has sent swirling around Washington heading into the Thanksgiving holiday this week.

       The selection of Gabbard to be director of national intelligence encapsulates Trump’s deep mistrust of intelligence agencies that he is convinced conspired against him over the Russia investigation in his first term.

       Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has very little experience working with high-level intelligence. And she has taken positions that are opposite to those of the US espionage community. She defended Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, who were behind two of the biggest US national security leaks of the 21st century. She also made arguments about the wars in Ukraine and Syria that appeared closer to the foreign policy positions of the Russian government than the American one.

       And CNN reported Friday that Gabbard had once been placed on a Transportation Security Administration watchlist — which, even if it was for benign reasons, would be highly unusual for a nominee for a top position.

       The 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate has now embraced Trump’s “America First” philosophy. Democrats seem to see her selection as vulnerable, or at least as a chance to make Trump pay a political price for choosing her, as they seek traction after a disastrous election.

       Duckworth, who said there were questions about whether Gabbard was a Russian asset, added: “I do think that we have a real deep concern whether or not she’s a compromised person. … The US intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so, my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check.”

       Sen.-elect Adam Schiff of California, who served on the House Intelligence Committee until GOP leadership kicked him off last year, also criticized Gabbard’s nomination, describing her Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” as “someone with very questionable judgment and no experience,” while also raising her visit to Syria.

       But Mullin, who had raised questions about the Gaetz selection, forcibly defended Gabbard from Duckworth. “For her to say ridiculous and outright dangerous words like that is wrong,” the Oklahoma Republican said on “State of the Union.” He said Gabbard “commands a Reserve unit here in Oklahoma and Missouri. If she was compromised, if she wasn’t able to pass a background check, if she wasn’t able to do her job, she still wouldn’t be in the Army.”

       Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt also defended Gabbard, saying on NBC, “I think it’s really interesting that anybody that has a different political view now is being cast as a Russian asset. It’s totally ridiculous.” The Republican senator said that such accusations were insulting. “It’s a slur, quite frankly,” he added.

       And Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said on ABC News’ “This Week” that while he didn’t agree with Gabbard on everything, she’d be responsible for implementing Trump’s policies, not her own views. “President Trump will fire people that don’t do their job well,” said Hagerty, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Japan during his first term.

       Still, it is clear there is some disquiet about Gabbard’s qualifications among Republican senators who will be asked to confirm her once she’s officially nominated when Trump is sworn in.

       “We will have lots of questions,” Oklahoma’s senior senator, James Lankford, told Bash on “State of the Union.” He added: “She met with Bashar (al-) Assad. We will want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was as a member of Congress. We will want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context.”

       But Lankford had few reservations about Trump’s pick of Bondi, who amplified the president-elect’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 and his claims the Justice Department was weaponized against him.

       “I think it’s entirely appropriate for Pam Bondi to step in and to say, or whoever that is as attorney general, to be able to step in and say, ‘We’re not going to allow someone to try to undercut the president of the United States in this Department of Justice,’” Lankford told CNN. “You have got to actually be balanced and about justice, not about attacking the president.”

       The selection of Bondi comes as the Trump team signals it intends to replace Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, who still has three years left in his term. The president-elect has long argued the bureau plotted against him, especially after his indictments for hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left office and over his attempt to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election.

       One potential new FBI director is Kash Patel, one of Trump’s most outspoken supporters, who was chief of staff to the former acting secretary of defense in the first term. Patel is regarded as one of the most vehement proponents of Trump’s MAGA movement, but multiple sources familiar with the Trump transition process expressed deep concern at the possibility he could be nominated, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported last week. A spot as FBI director would put Patel in position to investigate Trump’s enemies and to purge career civil servants that he and the president-elect believe are part of a corrupt “deep state.”

       One option might be to pick someone easier to confirm for the top job and have Patel serve as deputy director, CNN reported last week. But that would still leave the question of who is acceptable to Trump while being confirmable in the Senate.

       Patel left no doubt on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he’d seek to relitigate past investigations. “Put out the documents. Put out the evidence. We only have gotten halfway down the Russiagate hole,” Patel said. “The people need to know that their FBI is restored by knowing full well what they did to unlawfully surveil them. The people need to know that there has been a de-weaponization, a defanging of the Department of Justice and their houses of worship will no longer be raided.”