Unprecedented Lack of Intelligence Experience

• Gabbard—who “lacks deep intelligence experience,” has been “soft on Russia,” and has “floated numerous conspiracy theories”—would oversee 18 intelligence agencies critical to national security as the “president’s top intelligence adviser.” Gabbard “hasn’t held any senior government roles,” unlike other Directors of National Intelligence.

• Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton called Gabbard's appointment the “worst Cabinet appointment in recent American history” called for an FBI investigation into her before confirmation hearings, called her a “serious threat to our national security,” and said the votes against her should be “100 to nothing.” 

• Current intelligence officials have expressed alarm at her nomination, with some privately considering resignation if she becomes DNI. Former CIA officer Rep. Abigail Spanberger called Gabbard "ill-prepared and unqualified," noting she "traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators."

Concerning Foreign Connections and Security Risks

• Gabbard has repeated Russian propaganda such as claims that there are over two dozen U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine, a claim called “traitorous” by one Republican congressman, and urging the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine to “put geopolitics aside” and accept that Ukraine “will be a neutral country.”

• In 2022, Russian state television played a clip of Gabbard reacting to comments made by President Biden that Putin cannot stay in power. While setting up the clip, the host refers to Gabbard as “our girlfriend Tulsi” and a panelist “quipped” that she was a Russian agent.

• Gabbard secretly traveled to Syria in 2017 and met with dictator Bashar al Assad, reportedly for nearly three hours. In 2013, the Assad regime deployed chemical weapons against Syrian citizens when it “launched rockets carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin into the Ghouta district of Damascus, killing more than 1,400 people.” 

• Gabbard was briefly placed on a Transportation Security Administration watchlist after her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections triggered a government security algorithm. The incident raised concerns among security officials about her “unusual relationships overseas.”

Expected Role in Intelligence Community "Cleanup"

• Gabbard is one of Trump’s “most vocal supporters” and she is expected to play a critical part in his vengeance against what he calls the “‘deep state.’” Trump claims the intelligence community undermined his first administration and his political campaigns, saying, “‘we will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.’” Gabbard, in turn, has claimed Trump’s first term was undermined by career officials "’who were trying to undermine his objectives.’”