Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard in confirmation hearing: ‘I refuse to be their puppet’

CV NEWS FEED // During her confirmation hearing Thursday, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard said voters had delivered a “mandate for change” in the reelection of President Donald Trump, and challenged establishment politicians who have claimed that she is a “puppet” of foreign adversaries.

“The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change,” Gabbard said during an opening speech before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I want to warn the American people watching at home,” also said. “You will hear lies and smears in this hearing that challenge my loyalty to and love for our country.”

“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States,” she continued. “They used the same tactic against President Trump and failed.”

Gabbard noted that critics who have accused her of being the “puppet” of Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a yoga guru, fail to recognize “the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.”

“The fact is,” she added, “what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.”

“I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator,” Gabbard said. “I just hate All-Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called ‘rebels.’”

She then quoted Biden administration National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who once told then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton via email that “Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”

“Well, Syria is now controlled by an Al-Qaeda offshoot,” Gabbard said, “led by Islamist Jihadists who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who is responsible for the killing of many American service members.”

During the hearing, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, defended Gabbard’s record. Cotton, an Army veteran, had previously expressed his support for Gabbard’s nomination.

“I’m dismayed by the attacks on Miss Gabbard’s patriotism and her loyalty to our country,” he said. “For instance, Hillary Clinton has smeared Miss Gabbard, calling her an asset of a foreign nation.”

As Cotton went on to note, Gabbard has served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, “has multiple combat tours, and she still wears the uniform to this day.” Gabbard is now an Army Reserve officer.

“She has undergone five FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) background checks,” Cotton continued. “I spent more than two hours last week reviewing the latest, putting eyes on more than 300 pages. It’s clean as a whistle.”

“It’s fine that we have differences of opinion on policies and programs,” Cotton went on. “I suspect some of my Republican colleagues might disagree with some of Miss Gabbard’s votes in the House of Representatives. Just as I suspect some of my Democratic colleagues might criticize Miss Gabbard’s statements and actions since she saw the light and left the Democratic Party.”

“But I sincerely hope,” Cotton said, “that no one today would impugn Miss Gabbard’s patriotism and integrity.”

As Cotton alluded to, Gabbard served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021. During her Congressional tenure, she represented a deep-blue district in Hawaii, and for several years was considered a rising star within the Democratic Party.

She mounted a longshot bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. A heated debate exchange between her and fellow candidate Kamala Harris went viral during the 2020 election cycle.

In addition, Gabbard “served as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2013 to 2016,” CatholicVote previously reported, “resigning the position after deciding to endorse socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, for that year’s Democratic presidential nomination” over Clinton.

In 2020, Gabard “left the Democratic Party to become an independent, denouncing the party of which she had once been a vice chairwoman as ‘under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness,’” CatholicVote’s previous report noted.

In 2024, Gabbard endorsed Trump for president and appeared with him on the campaign trail on multiple occasions. Late last year, she joined the Republican Party.

>> OCTOBER: GABBARD ANNOUNCES SWITCH TO GOP <<

In the months following Trump’s November announcement that he was nominating Gabbard to be his DNI, some Republicans joined Democrats in claiming that the former lawmaker is loyal to foreign adversaries. 

One week after Trump selected Gabbard, the president’s former 2024 Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley called Gabbard a “Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” on an episode of Haley’s SiriusXM show.