In the wake of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime in Syria, social and news media have been flooded with horrific images of the atrocities Assad carried out against his own people. Those images should serve as a reminder of how incredibly unfit Tulsi Gabbard is to lead the U.S. intelligence community.
After all, as a congresswoman, Gabbard once worked overtime to keep Assad in power and insisted that he was not an enemy of the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump surprised many, including those within his own party, by nominating Gabbard to serve as the next director of national intelligence, one of the most powerful national security roles in the country. Gabbard was always likely to get a role in Trump’s administration after transforming from a hard-left Democratic congresswoman into a pro-Trump MAGA influencer, but few expected her to be put in charge of reshaping the intelligence community.
Gabbard served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades and was deployed to both Iraq and Kuwait. She later made history by becoming the first-
While much of her background and experience certainly bolsters her credentials for a top national security post, her public statements about Russia and Syria, surprise trip to Syria in 2017, and willingness to spread unverified information all will likely cause Republican senators to think twice about confirming her.
In 2022, Gabbard joined forces with the likes of Tucker Carlson to repeat widely debunked Russian claims that the U.S. had bio labs throughout Ukraine, which Russia used as part of its justification for its brutal invasion.
“Outraged lawmakers accused Gabbard two years ago of echoing Russian propaganda after Gabbard posted a video on social media asserting ‘the undeniable fact’ of purported bio labs funded by the U.S. across Ukraine. She did not specify, as Russian disinformation had, that they were biological weapons labs,” reported NBC News following Gabbard’s nomination, adding:
Ukraine’s government, the U.S. government, news organizations and independent researchers have all said there is no evidence for the claim, which originated from Moscow.
Gabbard is also under fire for her trip to Syria, which featured a meeting with Assad himself. After returning from her trip. she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “[The Syrians] asked me, ‘Why are the United States and its allies supporting these terror groups which are destroying Syria, when it was al-Qaeda that attacked the United
The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin slammed Gabbard this week for her past statements blaming U.S. foreign policy for the Syrian civil war, writing, “Never forget Tulsi was on Assad and Russia’s side and she told everybody the U.S. was behind the Syrian revolution. But now the Syrians liberated themselves and not even Tulsi can say we had anything to do with it. She was so wrong and all it did was help the murderers. Shame.”
Russia has a long been a key Assad ally, and its interventions in the civil war are largely responsible for helping him hold on to power for as long as he did. During the war, Gabbard repeatedly called to end the war by keeping Assad in place.
At the time Gabbard met with Assad, his regime was operating its torture chambers throughout the country, including at the infamous Sednaya prison.
Fox News’s Trey Yingst reported live from Sednaya on Thursday and said, “To call Sednaya hell on Earth would not do it justice. The English language lacks the word to describe these unimaginable conditions. Crumbling concrete walls are hidden beyond large steel doors. Each space tells a gruesome story of its own.”
Gabbard met with Assad in Damascus (Sednaya
Two years later, Gabbard would again go on cable news and tell MSNBC in February of 2019 that “Assad is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States.”
Journalist Michael Weiss shot down the idea this week that Assad was not a threat to the U.S. “This is what gets me about somebody like Tulsi Gabbard,” Weiss told the Bulwark podcast, adding:
I can at least appreciate, I don’t agree or necessarily respect, but I understand this sort of Kissingerian realpolitik. Well, he’s an awful dictator, but we have to do business with him because the alternative is worse, or we have bigger fish to fry and we need it, right? Whatever.I’ve heard that before. You know, that’s just IR Theory 101. She goes to Damascus, she meets with this guy.He’s not our enemy. Excuse me, excuse me. He spent years importing foreign jihadists, including people who ended up joining al-Qaeda in Iraq, sending them into Iraq to blow up American and British and coalition
forces, as well as Iraqi troops, as well as Iraqi civilians.
Gabbard’s critics have also pointed out the positive reception she receives on Russian state-controlled media. Vladimir Solovyov, a key Putin propagandist, infamously called Gabbard “our girlfriend” in a 2022 show about her statements on Ukraine. The New York Times reported on Gabbard’s fawning reception in Russia, saying, “The program included an interview Ms. Gabbard did with Tucker Carlson in which she claimed that Mr. Biden’s goal was to end Mr. Putin’s control of the Russian government.”
“In fact, Ms. Gabbard honed her pro-Russia views on Mr. Carlson’s show on Fox News before his program was canceled. She became a regular guest and occasionally filled in as host when Mr. Carlson was away,” added the Times.
Gabbard is likely the most at risk of Trump’s major nominees as rank-and-file Republican senators would need to be willing to scuttle the party’s traditional worldview in order to vote for her. The Wall Street Journal tried to offer those Senators an off-ramp this week by arguing that an even deeper issue with Gabbard is the fact that she opposed much of Trump’s first-term foreign policy agenda, and harshly criticized him during her own presidential campaign (she even accused him of being Saudi Arabia’s “bitch.”
“Ms. Gabbard is on ample record as a dogmatic opponent of the policies that made Mr. Trump’s first-term foreign policy a success
Whether or not that argument will carry enough water to protect senators from Trump’s wrath if they vote down Gabbard is yet to be seen. But one thing is for sure: The last time Gabbard held office, she tried to whitewash Assad’s crimes against humanity and help him stay in power — while blaming the U.S. for the revolt against his tyranny.
Such a person belongs nowhere near the office she’s seeking confirmation to.