Trump names former House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he will nominate Tulsi Gabbard, a former House Democrat who became a high-profile Trump supporter, to be director of national intelligence.
“For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our Country and Freedoms of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”
In her own statement Wednesday, Gabbard said she was grateful for the chance to “defend the safety, security and freedom of the American people” as a member of Trump’s Cabinet.
“I look forward to getting to work,” she added.
Gabbard announced shortly before the 2022 midterm elections that she was leaving the Democratic Party, which she accused in a video posted to X of “actively working to undermine our God-given freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.”
In August, she endorsed Trump, began working as a co-chair for his transition team and helped him prepare for his lone debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. Last month she formally announced that she would join the Republican Party.
Gabbard ran for the Democratic nomination during the 2020 presidential race, ending her campaign in March 2020 to endorse Joe Biden. She also served in the House from 2013 to 2021 and was vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 to 2016.
She is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and was previously deployed to the Middle East and Africa.
If confirmed, Gabbard will be the first person of color to hold the director of national intelligence position, which was created under then-President George W. Bush.
Gabbard has been widely criticized for her 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who had been accused of human rights violations and war crimes. She defended the meeting, telling MNSBC at the time, “We’ve got to be able to be willing to meet with whoever we need to if there is a possibility, and a chance that that can help us take steps forward towards peace.”
In 2019, Gabbard was one of the only House Democrats to not vote for Trump’s first impeachment on charges that he abused power and obstructed Congress.
Gabbard has also criticized the House Jan. 6 committee, arguing that the panel’s first public hearing in June 2022 about its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was centered on achieving “political interests.”
“They don’t have their priorities straight. So much of this has been politicized. It’s been sensationalized with very specific objectives that have nothing to do with upholding the Constitution,” Gabbard said during a 2022 interview on Fox News.
After a New York jury found found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts in his hush money trial this year, Gabbard said in video remarks posted online that the Biden-Harris administration was responsible for the “personal political persecution of Donald Trump.”
