Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) says Tulsi Gabbard, is “likely a Russian asset.”
In an interview on MSNBC Friday, Wasserman Schultz did not hold back when asked for her opinion about President-elect Donald Trump choosing Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence in his second administration.
“Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated the Department of State’s guidance and secretly, clandestinely went to Syria and met with [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad, who gassed and attacked his own people with chemical weapons,” she said. “She’s considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset.”
Asked if she would consider Gabbard to be a Russian asset Wasserman Schultz replied: “Oh Yes”
“There’s no question I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset,” she said.
Gabbard was a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, but left the party after her failed bid to win the nomination for president in 2020. She has since become one of Trump’s staunchest defenders.
Gabbard has been accused of peddling Russian propaganda and has repeatedly oppose U.S. intelligence conclusions especially about Russia and Ukraine.
After Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Gabbard promoted a Kremlin-backed conspiracy theory that the U.S. was funding biological warfare labs in Ukraine.
Gabbard received backlash for the post at the time including from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) who wrote on X: “Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”
Gabbard also criticized the Biden administration for failing to address Russian concerns hours after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border,” she wrote on X at the time.
Gabbard also spoke out against U.S. military intervention in the civil war in Syria under former President Barack Obama and, as Wasserman Schultz highlighted, met with Moscow-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 after Washington severed all diplomatic ties in 2012.
