Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said on Wednesday she is “appalled” by President-elect Trump’s choice of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) as the director of national intelligence (DNI).
In a thread on the social platform X, Spanberger raised concerns about Gabbard’s nomination and urged her Republican colleagues to “speak out” against it.
“As a former CIA case officer, I saw the men and women of the U.S. intelligence community put their lives on the line every day for this country — and I am appalled at the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to lead DNI,” Spanberger wrote.
She labeled Gabbard, who now identifies as a Republican, as “ill-prepared and unqualified,” stating she “she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin.”
“As a Member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am deeply concerned about what this nomination portends for our national security,” Spanberger added. “My Republican colleagues with a backbone should speak out.”
Spanberger joins a wave of lawmakers and former national security officials expressing concerns about Gabbard, who, as DNI, would oversee an agency that helps coordinate actions among all 18 of the U.S. intelligence agencies. The DNI is also responsible for putting together the President’s Daily Brief, arming the executive branch with the information it needs to make key national security decisions.
Gabbard has expressed beliefs that counter the conclusions drawn by U.S. intelligence, particularly when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. She could face an uphill battle for confirmation to the role, particularly given criticism over being too aligned with Russian talking points.
A four-term Democratic congresswoman who ran against President Biden in the 2020 primaries, Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, but did not officially become a Republican until earlier this year.
This political shift is accompanied by numerous statements and actions that have prompted accusations that she is peddling disinformation or could even be a Russian asset.
Gabbard has shared content suggesting that the U.S. was involved in Ukraine developing biological weapons — pushing a Russian narrative. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said at the time that she was “parroting Russian propaganda” and that her “treasonous lies may well cost lives.”
Gabbard in 2017 met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was accused of using chemical weapons on his own citizens during the country’s civil war. The meeting triggered outrage among her fellow members of Congress.
During her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Gabbard argued Assad was not an enemy of the United States and declined to say he was a war criminal.
Rebecca Beitsch contributed.
