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Tulsi Gabbard Fits Right Into Trump’s Vision for America

cigaretteman

cigaretteman

HB King
May 29, 2001
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Hillary was right:

By Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Dr. Ben-Ghiat is a historian and the author, most recently, of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”
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At a campaign rally in Virginia in June, Donald Trump hinted at the new kind of relationship America might have with Russia, China and North Korea if he were to be re-elected. “If you have a smart president, they’re not enemies,” Mr. Trump said. “You’ll make them do great.”
Mr. Trump has made no secret of his admiration for the governance style of dictators. He recently called Xi Jinping of China “a brilliant guy” for controlling “1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” He has signaled his sympathies with the new international order that Mr. Xi and other autocrats are seeking to create — in which to “do great” all too often means engaging in violence, transnational repression, foreign disinformation, espionage, sabotage and propaganda.
Perhaps none of Mr. Trump’s picks for his new cabinet embody this worldview better than former Representative Tulsi Gabbard, his choice for director of national intelligence. Her nomination encapsulates Mr. Trump’s apparent intent to reshape America’s global profile by cooperating with autocrats and facilitating the spread of their anti-democratic worldviews.
If democracy protection and preserving trust with foreign allies were the priorities of the Trump administration, Ms. Gabbard would not be set to appear before Congress. The director of national intelligence, who sits at the head of all American clandestine agencies, not only has access to classified materials from 18 U.S. intelligence agencies but also can decide what materials remain classified or become declassified. The director chooses what information to include in the president’s daily briefing and has a say on what should be shared with allies.
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Ms. Gabbard is a singular choice in this regard. Her apparent affinity for the virulent strain of Hindu nationalism that has fueled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assaults on Indian democracy, her off-the-books meeting with then-President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in 2017 and her repetition of Russian and Syrian government propaganda immediately raised alarms about her judgment and suitability for the job when Mr. Trump announced his choice in November. Since then, nearly 100 former U.S. diplomatic, intelligence and national security officials have signed an open letter accusing Ms. Gabbard of having a “sympathy for dictators,” among many other worrying allegations.
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Russia experts and intelligence experts have frequently remarked on Ms. Gabbard’s history of taking positions that defend Russian interests or cast the United States as a villain. She blamed NATO and the Biden administration for provoking Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago by failing to respect “Russia’s legitimate security concerns” and suggested that the United States covertly worked with Ukraine on dangerous biological pathogens. Whether regarding Syria or Russia, she has consistently portrayed “America as the problem and the dictators as misunderstood,” observed Tom Nichols, a national security analyst.
Mr. Trump appears to share some of these views. Many of his statements on foreign affairs suggest a similar internalization of an autocratic view of geopolitics that blames democracies for creating international conflict. When Mr. Trump suggests that President Joe Biden’s support of Ukraine’s bid to join NATO provoked Russia’s invasion, for instance, he too justifies the Kremlin’s autocratic aggression as a legitimate response to the hostile actions of a democracy.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/opinion/tulsi-gabbard-trump-cabinet.html
 
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It’s not just Ms. Gabbard’s views on foreign affairs that are indicative of how Mr. Trump envisions the aims of his second administration. If one thinks like an autocrat, the foremost quality that would seem to disqualify her from service — a simple lack of experience — is an asset, not a liability. Authoritarian-minded leaders value loyalty far more than expertise or competency. They hollow out democratic institutions by replacing nonpartisan civil servants and career professionals with individuals who will repeat their talking points and do their bidding, no matter what that entails. That’s what has happened in the Hungary of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, where opposition figures and nonpolitical professionals have been removed from public institutions such as election commissions and the judiciary.
For sensitive or weighty positions, autocrats may choose an outsider who lacks relationships with trusted experts in the field or an individual who seems unprepared to lead a large organization. Inexperienced individuals may be doubly dependent on the leader and vulnerable to the influence of the leader’s allies, and can be blamed for any mistakes or scandals that may surface. Ms. Gabbard could master the director’s job. But Mr. Trump’s choice of someone so unqualified at the start is telling.


​


All of this, of course, carries distinct national security risks. Intelligence experts have predicted a proliferation of chaos in their sphere if Ms. Gabbard is confirmed. They worry that her lack of personal connections with foreign intelligence professionals and the distrust engendered by her pro-autocratic sentiments are likely to affect foreign intelligence-sharing with the United States, including from our closest allies.
Spreading false information among enemy countries has been a staple of espionage and malign influence campaigns around the world. As someone who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait with the Army National Guard, Ms. Gabbard must know this well and should have been particularly alert to such misinformation. Yet she reportedly continued to rely on Russia Today for news, even after her aides told her it was Kremlin propaganda, and to circulate Syrian conspiracy theories, questioning, for instance, whether Mr. al-Assad’s 2013 and 2017 chemical weapons attacks might have been false-flag operations by Syrian rebels.
These national security risks will be redoubled if Mr. Trump chooses to follow the authoritarian playbook and use the intelligence community for personal gain. As nations edge toward autocracy, the spy agencies can be redirected toward a leader’s retribution schemes. The autocrat’s eternal quest to feel safe means there are always more internal enemies to be investigated and tracked, and more dissidents abroad to target. Under Mr. Modi, for instance, India’s Research and Analysis Wing has become more active in transnational repression of his critics in the Indian diaspora.
Six years ago, Mr. Trump suggested he was open to closer relationships with the world’s dictators. “I meet them all,” he declared. “Come on in. Whatever’s good for the United States.” His nomination of Ms. Gabbard for director of national intelligence suggests that he intends to renew the invitation. Autocrats may well find an even warmer reception in America during the second Trump administration. Our democracy will pay the price.
 
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cigaretteman said:
to circulate Syrian conspiracy theories, questioning, for instance, whether Mr. al-Assad’s 2013 and 2017 chemical weapons attacks might have been false-flag operations by Syrian rebels.
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Funny the author makes no reference to the whistleblowers from the inspection team who pointed out the canister alleged to have been the delivery mechanism wouldn't fit through the hole in the roof above where it was found, nor the fact the hole was clearly the product of an explosive blast, and not a puncture from the cannister (that was larger than the hole).

And of course no mention that we looked the other way (or worse) while Turkey helped a jihadist with a $10 million dollar bounty on his head take over Syria. I'm sure it will work out great, like all the other neocon adventures this century.
 
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McLovin32 said:
Everyone knows you're not a Libertarian. It's just convenient to claim that during your online debates.
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Yeah, the Dems on here claim to know everything.

The problem is, I'm neither a warmonger nor the morality police so I can't be Republican. You are severely binary however. Anyone not thinking like you MUST by a MAGA Republican. Get over yourself.

Oh.... you thank voters like me. We kept Trump from getting an absolute majority.
 
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Finance85 said:
Yeah, the Dems on here claim to know everything.

The problem is, I'm neither a warmonger nor the morality police so I can't be Republican. You are severely binary however. Anyone not thinking like you MUST by a MAGA Republican. Get over yourself.
Click to expand...
False. I'm quite capable of understanding that people have varying opinions.

There's multiple people on here that are just like you. Claim to not be a Republican, or MAGA yet defend defend defend MAGA at all costs.

You claiming to be a libertarian is the exact same as bins claiming to be an independent/moderate. It's quite fascinating to me how you guys have no clue how stupid you look to everyone else on this board. Keep doing you, my friend. It's entertaining as shit for the majority of us.
 
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In her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, senators repeatedly pressed Tulsi Gabbard on her highly scrutinized trip to Syria in 2017, where she met President Bashar al-Assad and others, including a Syrian cleric who had previously threatened to unleash suicide bombers in the United States if the American military intervened in his country.


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When asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) whether she was aware of the threat made by Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who was then grand mufti of Syria, Gabbard — President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence — answered: “I was not and had not heard that until today.”
But documents reviewed by The Washington Post indicate that Gabbard was aware of Hassoun’s threats soon after she returned from her controversial visit to the country in January 2017.


The documents, which appear within a larger trove from Gabbard’s former congressional office, show that Hassoun’s comments on suicide bombers were flagged as problematic by one of her aides in early 2017 and were identified in an external vetting process as the likeliest source of negative publicity about the trip.
A Google account in Gabbard’s name left comments in an electronic draft of potential answers her office was preparing to counter anticipated media questions about the cleric.
The Post could not independently confirm whether Gabbard herself was using the account, but it was used to send emails to staff signed in her name and advisers sent messages to it that were addressed to Gabbard. A detailed log of the effort to prepare the post-trip paperwork compiled by a senior adviser attributed actions taken with the account to Gabbard herself.


Spokespeople for Gabbard and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hassoun was appointed to the position of grand mufti, Syria’s most senior Sunni Muslim cleric, by the Assad regime in 2005. He was an Assad loyalist and, as the country descended into civil war, publicly warned Washington and other Western nations against taking military action against the government.
“I say to all of Europe, I say to America, we will set up suicide bombers who are now in your countries, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon,” he said in a speech in September 2011, according to an Associated Press report from the time. “From now on, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

The records reviewed by The Post show that when Gabbard was first invited to visit Syria by Ohio-based activists in November 2016, Hassoun was one of the dignitaries they said she would have the opportunity to meet. She eventually visited Syria, as well as Lebanon, the following January.

According to her account of the trip, Gabbard had a meeting with Hassoun on the afternoon of Jan. 16, 2017, directly after she met Assad and his wife, Asma. It was not clear what they discussed.

Syria has long been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, and after the U.S. shut its embassy there in 2012, Washington had no diplomatic relations with the regime. U.S. officials generally did not meet with regime officials and the State Department advised against travel to the country.

After her return, amid controversy over her meeting with the Syrian dictator, Gabbard’s advisers mounted a days-long scramble to account for her time in Syria in official paperwork and limit the political fallout, records reviewed by The Post show. The trip has come under renewed scrutiny since Trump picked Gabbard to oversee all 18 U.S. spy agencies.

When Gabbard shared her full itinerary with her team after returning from Syria, they moved quickly to vet people she had met in case their backgrounds generated further negative publicity. One adviser commissioned someone from outside the office, identified only as “Matt” in the records seen by The Post, to research the officials and other dignitaries.
Matt sent back a six-page report marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and titled “Key Vulnerabilities.” The first bullet point at the top of the first page referenced Hassoun by name and said: “Rep. Gabbard met with an Islamic Cleric that threatened to activate a network of suicide bombers in the U.S. and Europe if Western countries militarily intervened in Syria.”

The adviser sent Gabbard and several other colleagues an email titled “Vet Info” that appeared to include the report as an attachment.

“I haven’t looked through all this yet because I wanted to get it out ASAP,” the adviser wrote. “But let me know if you have any questions for Matt (the vetter).” The version of the email reviewed by The Post had been subsequently forwarded between aides and did not feature an attachment.
As the team prepared a final report on the trip for the House Ethics Committee, one adviser commented on the Hassoun meeting in the margins of a Google Doc where they were compiling Gabbard’s itinerary. “This is going to be one of the biggest issues,” the adviser wrote. “We need to have an agreed upon answer to all staff and external team as well.”

On Feb. 8, Gabbard’s Google account drafted an answer to anticipated questions from the media about the suicide bomber comments, according to the edit logs of a second Google Doc prepared by Gabbard and senior aides. “Why did you meet with a man who has threatened to activate a network of suicide bombers against the United States?” said the anticipated question.

 
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Finance85 said:
Yeah, the Dems on here claim to know everything.

The problem is, I'm neither a warmonger nor the morality police so I can't be Republican. You are severely binary however. Anyone not thinking like you MUST by a MAGA Republican. Get over yourself.

Oh.... you thank voters like me. We kept Trump from getting an absolute majority.
Click to expand...

Hey grandpa, wake up!! It's not the year 2000 anymore, warmongering and morality anything are not associated with the Republican party anymore. They gave up free market principles and rule of law too! Try and catch up.
 
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Trump nominated Gabbard for two reasons. He thinks he's trolling the LibZ by nominating a former Dem, and he thinks she's doable.
 
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MitchLL said:
Until I watched the Gabbard hearings, I never realized how tough it is to answer a "yes or no" question!

You can now understand how little consideration went into picking these nominees.
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Have you ever seen a Democrat answer a yes or no question without offering some kind of explanation without answering anything pertinent to the actual question itself?
 
McLovin32 said:
Everyone knows you're not a Libertarian. It's just convenient to claim that during your online debates.
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Libertarians are just economic fascists. I feel like their positions on stuff like legalizing weed is just something to lure in young people, eventually like most cults they eventually work in their actual ideology. In their case it is decentralizing power from the people's government. They will play that off as liberty, what it actually does is allow the already wealthy and powerful people usurp the power unburdened from the people. When the government is left less effective you get oligarchy which will eventually lead to autocrats.

The freeing of the Silk Roads guy that got pardoned was something the libertarians wanted. Murder for hire and child porn was available on that site. Not to mention the less heinous stuff like mailing drugs to kids and leading to overdoses of children.

Libertarians are sociopaths that feel like they have reached some sort of Ayn Rand enlightenment.

If any libertarians quote me on this thread let them know I have them on ignore. Another thing about libertarians is they will interact with you as much as you let them. Lonely little bastards.
 
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Moral said:
Libertarians are just economic fascists. I feel like their positions on stuff like legalizing weed is just something to lure in young people, eventually like most cults they eventually work in their actual ideology. In their case it is decentralizing power from the people's government. They will play that off as liberty, what it actually does is allow the already wealthy and powerful people usurp the power unburdened from the people. When the government is left less effective you get oligarchy which will eventually lead to autocrats.

The freeing of the Silk Roads guy that got pardoned was something the libertarians wanted. Murder for hire and child porn was available on that site. Not to mention the less heinous stuff like mailing drugs to kids and leading to overdoses of children.

Libertarians are sociopaths that feel like they have reached some sort of Ayn Rand enlightenment.

If any libertarians quote me on this thread let them know I have them on ignore. Another thing about libertarians is they will interact with you as much as you let them. Lonely little bastards.
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dgordo said:
View embedded media
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This is such a disingenuous line of attack.
He fled to Hong Kong, where he shared the files on illegal domestic spying with reporters. He was then flying to Ecuador where he had been seeking asylum and the White House deliberately revoked his passport while he was in a layover at the Moscow airport, so they could trap him in Russia and then make the bogus claim that he had fled there, omitting how they had legally trapped him there.
And people keep repeating it. It worked so well on a lot of people, like the 'fine people' hoax.




Many accuse the whistleblower of working for Moscow, but during his interview with NBC, Snowden claimed that has "no relationship with the Russian government at all." Greenwald says this is a tactic that the U.S. government has used before.

When Daniel Ellsberg "leaked the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon Administration and all of its allies in the media constantly told the public that he was getting paid by the Russians, that he was a Russian spy, that he was on their payroll, and that he was harming national security," says Greenwald.

When asked about Snowden's ties to Russia, Greenwald says the accusation is meant to hurt Snowden's credibility in the same way they were designed to discredit Ellsberg.

"It is the same accusatory clichés and fear mongering campaigns that they use against every whistleblower," says Greenwald. "If anybody has a shred of evidence that Edward Snowden has any relationship with the Russians like your question asked about, then they should come forward with it. He didn't choose to be in Russia, he was passing through Russia on his way to Latin America. He was forced to remain there because the U.S. government revoked his passport and then bullied the Cubans out of giving him safe passage through to Ecuador, where he wanted to seek asylum."
 
Moral said:
The freeing of the Silk Roads guy that got pardoned was something the libertarians wanted. Murder for hire and child porn was available on that site. Not to mention the less heinous stuff like mailing drugs to kids and leading to overdoses of children.
Click to expand...

What would it take for you to realize you're regurgitating a lie there?
I've already provided you sources from reporters who accessed the site, even a story from a Juvenile Justice magazine disputing that 'think of the children' hyperbole you keep reverting to.

If you want to reduce overdoses you'll need to end the war on drugs.
Silk Road's eBay like customer/seller ratings were actually an effort to reduce the sketchiness of the black market the drug sales were forced into.
Libertarians would have sales in the open, with culpability on sellers, but the war on drugs precludes that.
 
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