If you thought about the worst possible choice for director of National Intelligence, former Democratic-turned-Republican Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard would be high up there. However, that’s exactly who President-elect Donald Trump nominated to head the supervision of the United States’s intelligence apparatus.
Republican senators, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Senate Majority Leader-elect Sen. John Thune (R-SD), now face a choice between putting the nation first or submission to Trump. After all, if Gabbard is approved, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have an ideological sympathizer holding the keys to the U.S. intelligence community crown jewels. This is not an exaggeration.
The National Intelligence director supervises all U.S. intelligence agencies’ collection, analysis, and mission efforts and the production and dissemination of the U.S. government’s most sensitive intelligence reporting and analysis. This includes knowledge of spies buried deep inside foreign governments and terrorist organizations. The fact that Trump nominated Gabbard makes it clear that he is putting his distrust of the intelligence community before the critical interests of national security.
Gabbard has served in uniform and deserves respect for doing so. Still, her views toward all of the United States’s key adversaries make her plainly unsuited for this role. Put simply, Gabbard openly blames the U.S. rather than its adversaries for the threats they pose to U.S. national security.
On China, in a statement happily regurgitated by Chinese state media, Gabbard previously called on Trump to end the “destructive trade war with China.” The former congresswoman also pushed the narrative offered by China sympathizers, such as Ray Dalio, that China should be treated as a partner rather than as an exigent national security threat.
On Russia, Gabbard opposed Trump’s removal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty in response to rampant Russian breaches of that treaty. She has blamed NATO and the U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (again, to the celebration of both Russian and Chinese state media), has repeated Russian propaganda claims that the U.S. has set up secret bioweapons labs in that country, and has argued that the U.S. not Russia is wholly responsible for Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship.
On Syria, Gabbard has gone far beyond Trump’s skepticism for continued U.S. military presence in the country. Regurgitating propaganda from Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime, she has blamed Trump for Syria’s challenges and expressed sympathy for Assad’s leadership. Assad, it should be noted, has starved, barrel bombed, and otherwise taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of his own people since the 2011 start of the Syrian civil war.
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Trump has made some strong selections for top national security roles in his new administration. However, in this case, Trump put his desire for loyalty before the interests of the nation. Senate Republicans should join Senate Democrats in preventing his mistake from taking effect.
Gabbard’s nomination for this important job should be voted down.