Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and a veteran of combat missions in Iraq, said she was concerned about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice. Director of National Intelligence.
“I think he’s engaged,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to Gabbard’s 2017 trip to Syria, where she held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gabbard was a member of the Democratic House of Hawaii at the time.
“The U.S. intelligence community has identified him as having troubling ties to America’s enemies. And so my concern is that he couldn’t pass the background check,” Duckworth said.
Gabbard, who said last month he was joining the Republican Party, has been in the Army National Guard for more than two decades. They deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and, according to the Hawaii National Guard, received A Combat Medic Badge in 2005 for “participation in combat operations under enemy fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III.”
Duckworth’s comments prompted an immediate backlash from Republicans.
“To say such ridiculous and absolutely dangerous words is wrong,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said on CNN, challenging Duckworth to take back his words. “That’s the most dangerous thing he could say: that an American lieutenant colonel is in danger in the US army and that he is an asset of Russia.”
In recent days, other Democrats have accused Gabbard of being a “Russian operative” without evidence. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, said, without elaborating, that Gabbard is in “Putin’s pocket” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mullin and others say Democrats’ criticism is based on Gabbard leaving their party and becoming a Trump ally. Democrats have said they are concerned that Gabbard’s selection as national intelligence chief could jeopardize relations with allies and give Russia a win.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a newly elected California Democrat to the Senate, said he would not describe Gabbard as a Russian operative, but said she had “very questionable judgment.”
“The problem is that if our foreign allies don’t trust the heads of our intelligence agencies, they’re going to stop sharing information with us,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Gabbard accepted one of Russia’s justifications in 2022 Invading Ukrainethe existence of : Dozens of US-funded biolabs cultivating some of the world’s worst pathogens. The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow said Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons. Gabbard said the lab raised concerns about protection.
Gabbard also suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, Republican of Missouri, said he thought it was “absolutely ridiculous” to frame Gabbard as a Russian operative for having different political views.
“It’s offensive. It’s a joke, frankly. There is no evidence that it is the property of another country,” he said on NBC.
Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged he has “a lot of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate takes up the nomination to head the intelligence services. Lankford said on NBC that he wants to ask Gabbard about his meeting with Assad and some of his past comments about Russia.
“We want to know what the goal was and what was the direction of it. As members of Congress, we want to talk about past comments that have been made and put them into full context,” Lankford said.
