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Tulsi Gabbard likely to face bumpy ride in Senate as ex-US officials lambast her for alleged ‘sympathy for dictators'
Gabbard has portrayed herself as a staunch advocate of Israel and the “war on terror” while denouncing US conflicts with nations such as Iran and Russia.
The Senate has been urged to hold private briefings on Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, due to her alleged “sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad” and other issues.
In an open letter addressed to the current Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and incoming majority leader John Thune, nearly 100 former US diplomats and national security and intelligence professionals lambasted Gabbard for her lack of intelligence experience, conspiracy theories regarding Russia's plan to invade Ukraine in 2022. They also targeted her for “aligning herself with Russian and Syrian officials” after a “uncoordinated” meeting with Assad in Damascus in 2017.
Among those who signed the letter were former national security adviser Anthony Lake, former deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman, and former NATO deputy secretary general Rose Gottemoeller.
If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard will become Trump's intelligence advisor and the first Hindu Congresswoman to hold the position of head of the US espionage agency. Earlier, Gabbard was a representative from Hawaii in the US Congress.
The authorities urged the Senate to “fully exercise its constitutional advice and consent role” by conducting the necessary hearings and due investigation.
It further asked Senate committees to examine Gabbard's credentials in private in a bid to safeguard intelligence procedures and sources.
What Tulsi Gabbard has to say?
Gabbard has denied these accusations, claiming they are a smear campaign and that her anti-interventionist stance on Syria and Ukraine has been misinterpreted.
“These unfounded attacks are from the same geniuses who have blood on their hands from decades of faulty ‘intelligence’,” said Alexa Henning, a Gabbard spokesman for the Trump campaign.
Gabbard has portrayed herself as a staunch advocate of Israel and the “war on terror” while denouncing US conflicts with nations such as Iran and Russia.
She also denounced Trump's choice to kill Iranian general Qassem Suleimani as a “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”
In 2020, the US executed the influential Iranian military leader, Major General Qassem Soleimani.
According to The Guardian, the letter also emphasised Gabbard's online statements implying that US-funded facilities in Ukraine were creating biological weapons and her vocal skepticism regarding Assad's use of chemical weapons on civilians.
