Sheldon Whitehouse: “I am here to speak in opposition to the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence of…”

“I am here to speak in opposition to the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence of the United States of America. Setting aside her lack of qualifications and setting aside her rotten judgment, her nomination strikes me as being part of a pattern of unilateral disarmament by the Trump administration against Russia. One can hazard as to why this is happening, but the fact that it is happening seems hard to deny. In November 2024, the Washington Post wrote this: Gabbard's planned appointment as the head of national intelligence elicited the most excitement in Russia because she has been long regarded as a darling of the propagandist Russian RT network, which amplified her sympathetic takes on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Putin. Russian state TV has called Ms. Gabbard ``our friend Tulsi.'' The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published an op-ed, and it was titled ``The CIA and FBI are trembling: Why Trump protege Tulsi Gabbard will support Russia as head of National Intelligence.'' So the Russians are telling us pretty plain and simple: She is with us. If you look at some of her behavior particularly relevant to the DNI position, she has constantly opposed section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is a key source of foreign intelligence for our national security and which--I guess I would have to say in this location--presumably is useful at getting intelligence on Russia. She is not alone.…”