Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, has made headlines for years with her criticism of what she describes as “regime change” wars and abuses by the nation’s intelligence agencies. On Thursday she will be defending those comments.
At her confirmation hearing, senators are likely to zero in on her sympathy toward Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s arguments for waging war in Ukraine. Her failure to strongly and consistently condemn Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s now-deposed dictator, is likely to be another line of questioning.
Ms. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who is now a Republican, will undoubtedly be asked about her views on whether the intelligence gathering of federal agencies, which she will oversee if confirmed, needs to be reined in.
She might find herself on the defensive, even in questioning from Republican senators, for her previous championing of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, each of whom were pursued by the American authorities for unlawfully releasing classified documents.
Here are examples of comments she made on podcasts, social media or television interviews:
On Russia and Ukraine
Ms. Gabbard has repeatedly voiced views in line with the Kremlin’s. She insisted that the Biden administration, NATO and some European countries had dismissed Russia’s security concerns about Ukraine and that Mr. Putin, who ordered the military invasion, was not solely to blame for the conflict.
“You hear President Biden say, ‘Well, this is Putin’s war, this is Putin’s fault. It’s Putin who’s the one who’s solely responsible.’ Well, the United States and some of these European NATO countries are fueling this war.”
She has also said that the Biden administration was supporting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine not for moral reasons, but rather because the United States wanted to “destroy Russia,” even at the risk of nuclear war.
“This is about regime change in Russia and exploiting this war to strengthen NATO and feed the military-industrial complex. Now, to Joe Biden, it’s even about bringing about ‘a new world order.’”
“Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News, Aug. 12, 2022
“The warmongers are trying to drag us into WW3, which can only end in one way: nuclear annihilation and the suffering and death of all our loved ones. Zelensky, Biden, NATO, congressional and media neocons are insane. And we are insane if we passively allow them to lead us into this holocaust like sheep to the slaughter.”
@TulsiGabbard post on Twitter, now X, May 21, 2023
On Syria and Assad
Ms. Gabbard has said she opposed U.S. support for armed rebels seeking to overthrow Mr. Assad, partly because it is not in America’s interest to involve itself in wars to topple foreign leaders.
Disputing the Pentagon’s findings in 2017 in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, she questioned whether Mr. al-Assad’s forces had used banned chemical weapons. She refused to pin blame on Mr. Assad, who was supported by Russia, for the multitude of deaths in his nation’s conflict.
“There’s responsibility that goes around, Wolf. Again, my interest is in bringing about peace. Standing here and pointing fingers does not accomplish peace for the Syrian people. It will not bring about an end to this war.”
The reach of intelligence agencies
Ms. Gabbard has argued for years that U.S. intelligence agencies need to be tempered.
“The security state is real and don’t you dare challenge them or you’ll have a target on your back.”
“Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News, Aug. 12, 2022
She has claimed that the Biden administration weaponized the government to spy on her. After she attended an event organized by someone on an F.B.I. watch list, the Transportation Security Administration briefly assigned undercover air marshals to her flights under its airline security program. Senior U.S. officials denied that the scrutiny was politically motivated.
“I will always be looking over my shoulder wondering if and how our government in any of these different agencies is surveilling me, watching me. Are they reading my text messages? Are they listening to my phone calls?”
She has described John Brennan, director of the C.I.A. under President Barack Obama, and Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who once led the House intelligence committee, as domestic enemies. Mr. Brennan declined to comment before her hearing.
“The John Brennan’s, Adam Schiffs and oligarchs in Big Tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally-protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style ‘surveillance’ are also domestic enemies—and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob that stormed the capitol.”
@TulsiGabbard Twitter post, Jan. 26, 2021
Defense of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange
Senators from both major parties have sharply criticized Ms. Gabbard’s defense of Mr. Snowden, who in 2013 released reams of classified data from the National Security Agency on American surveillance programs and was charged with violating the Espionage Act. He is now in Russia.
“If it wasn’t for Snowden the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans.”
@TulsiGabbard Twitter post, June 3, 2019
“I remember the very day that I woke up in D.C., looked at my phone, started looking through the headlines and saw those headlines about how the N.S.A. was mass surveilling all of us and collecting our phone records, collecting our cellphone records — Verizon, AT&T, T Mobile — and I was shocked. So that was something that Snowden uncovered and released, something that I don’t know that even as members of Congress we would have been aware of.”
She said criminal charges should be dropped against not just Mr. Snowden, but also Mr. Assange, reasoning that he had also informed the American people about their government’s actions. Mr. Assange pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Espionage Act last year.
“The increasingly authoritarian Biden-Garland administration is doubling down on its crusade against our constitutionally protected rights, our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, by continuing their vindictive retaliatory crusade against Julian Assange. If they succeed in this, this will be yet another nail in the coffin of democracy, here in our country and around the world.”
@TulsiGabbard Twitter post, Oct. 28, 2021
Video production by Chevaz Clarke.
