Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Donald Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence had largely gone below the radar, with critics taking intention at Pete Hegseth and Matt Gaetz.
But now she’s the newest Trump administration decide to come back below scrutiny over her colourful previous.
With questions being raised about her hyperlinks with Russia and Syria, the previous Hawaii congresswoman met with senior Republicans on Capitol Hill on Monday in a bid to shore up her assist.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel within the Army Reserve, has defended now-deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in interviews, saying he was not an enemy of the United States. She visited Assad in Damascus in 2017, 4 years after he was accused of gassing his personal folks.
After Assad fled to Moscow along with his household over the weekend, former Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger trolled her on X, writing: “Wonder if @TulsiGabbard will provide Assad protected harbor at her home? They are nice associates.”
Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton additionally questioned Gabbard’s judgment, telling Politico that her thought of U.S. overseas coverage was like a “funhouse of mirrors.”
He referenced her assist for a Russian-backed conspiracy concept that the U.S. was researching organic warfare in Ukraine and mentioned she had “an inclination to consider probably the most outrageous propaganda towards the United States by a few of its strongest enemies.”
Bolton claimed that Gabbard’s worldview “goes past regular political discourse on this nation—and actually is proof of some sort of flaw, perhaps even a personality flaw, that she doesn’t understand what she’s saying.”
In a weird twist, Russian state media backed Gabbard for America’s spy chief, a transfer that solely served to gas her critics.
She will want Senate affirmation to take up the position overseeing 18 intelligence companies and managing a funds of greater than $70 billion.
The former Democrat, who ran unsuccessfully for the get together’s presidential nomination within the 2020 election, was assembly on Monday with Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD), James Lankford (R-OK), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who referred to as her “extraordinarily vibrant and succesful” final month.
Transition spokesperson Alexa Henning hit again at Bolton, telling Politico: “John Bolton is irrelevant and him saying he would write in Dick Cheney for president this 12 months ought to inform you all the things you might want to find out about his disastrous and failed overseas coverage instincts of unending wars and extra American deaths.”
Henning insisted Gabbard “is in lockstep with President Trump and his statements on the occasions in Syria over the weekend. This is why President Trump was re-elected to forestall infinite wars and put America First.”
