Nikki Haley Denounces Trump’s Call With Putin
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Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s top spy pick, faces fresh scrutiny over Syria and Russia positions
Trump top spy pick faces fresh scrutiny over Syria visit and Russia comments. Former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s controversial 2017 meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has drawn fresh scrutiny. On Thursday, she will face questioning from senators in Washington who will later vote on her confirmation. If confirmed as US director of national intelligence (DNI), she would act as a steward of the nation’s most important secrets. She would oversee 18 US spy agencies and serve as a close adviser to the president. But former US national security officials and lawmakers have raised concerns that the choice could negatively affect intelligence co-operation. Trump has also defended his pick, saying she “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community’ But in an odd twist for a DNI appointment, Russian state media praised the Gabbar choice. Gabbards’ positions have earned her praise and scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike. Her views have been generally anti-war, opposed to American intervention and deeply critical of the US intelligence community.
30 January 2025 Share Save Phil McCausland, Kayla Epstein and Rachel Looker BBC News, New York and Washington DC Share Save
Getty Images Donald Trump has praised Tulsi Gabbard’s “fearless spirit”
Former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s controversial 2017 meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and past statements on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have drawn fresh scrutiny after President-elect Donald Trump picked her to oversee America’s spy agencies. On Thursday, she will face questioning from senators in Washington who will later vote on her confirmation. If confirmed as US director of national intelligence (DNI), Gabbard would act as a steward of the nation’s most important secrets, oversee 18 US spy agencies and serve as a close adviser to the president. But former US national security officials and lawmakers have raised concerns that the choice of Gabbard – a fierce opponent of America’s involvement in foreign wars and whom critics accuse of echoing Kremlin narratives – could negatively affect intelligence co-operation. Lewis Lukens, a retired diplomat who served as the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in London during the first Trump administration, told the BBC that Gabbard’s “dubious judgement” could give allies “reason to question how safe it is to share intelligence with the US”. Gabbard, who recently joined the Republican Party, has previously said her detractors are “warmongers” who seek to smear any critic of Washington’s establishment. Trump has also defended his pick, saying that Gabbard – a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait – “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community”. But in an odd twist for a DNI appointment, Russian state media praised the Gabbard choice, which only added to the alarm among national security officials in the US capital. Prominent talk show host Olga Skabeyeva said on 14 November that “virtually from the first days of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, she [Gabbard] explained its reasons, criticised the actions of the Biden administration, and also personally met none other than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supported his fight against terrorists.”
For as long as she has been in politics, Gabbard’s positions have earned her praise and scorn from Democrats and Republicans alike. Her views have been generally anti-war, opposed to American intervention and deeply critical of the US intelligence community. But it was her January 2017 “fact-finding” trip to Syria as a congresswoman that first sparked outrage – particularly when she later raised doubt about the US intelligence assessment that Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons on civilians. After the Trump administration launched a series of strikes on Syria in April that year following a chemical attack that killed more than 80 people, Gabbard called the strikes “reckless and short-sighted”, saying they would escalate the civil war and hamper the collection of evidence about what had happened. The US launched missiles at a Syrian Air Force base where the Pentagon said a warplane had taken off before dropping bombs filled with the nerve agent sarin on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. A UN panel later came to the same conclusion as the US, saying it was confident that the Syrian government was responsible for the release of sarin in the town. Assad’s government and its ally Russia rejected the report and alleged that the Syrian Air Force strike hit a rebel depot full of chemical munitions. Gabbard’s comments, and her controversial meeting with Assad, hung over her run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019. Defending her actions, she told an interviewer that Assad, who is also backed by Iran, was “not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States”. The Trump transition team has not responded to a request for comment from the BBC.
Who is Tulsi Gabbard?
She drew further attention during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when she made statements seen by some as echoing Putin’s justifications for the war. Gabbard said that the war could have been avoided if the Biden administration and the Nato military alliance “had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns” about Ukraine eventually becoming a member. Weeks later, she released a video commenting that US-funded biolabs in Ukraine could be breached and “release and spread deadly pathogens”. It came as Russia, defending its invasion, spread unevidenced claims that the US was helping Ukraine to develop biological weapons. In response, Republican Senator Mitt Romney posted on social media that Gabbard was “parroting false Russian propaganda” and spreading “treasonous lies”. Gabbard sent a cease-and-desist letter to Romney over his remarks. And during the 2024 presidential campaign, Gabbard alleged that Vice-President Kamala Harris was the “main instigator” of the conflict in Ukraine for having supported Kyiv’s Nato aspirations. Nikki Haley, Trump’s UN ambassador during his first term and a politician who challenged him for the Republican nomination in the 2024 election, said recently that Gabbard could not be entrusted with such a high-level intelligence role. “This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathiser,” Haley said.
Questions for foreign allies
Some worry that Gabbard taking the position could affect trust between US intelligence agencies and their foreign counterparts. A former senior White House official said Gabbard’s appointment could have “real effects on our ability to have intelligence diplomacy with close allies”. “It certainly will raise real questions in the minds of foreign counterparts if the person sitting across from them – Tulsi Gabbard – has fundamentally differing assumptions about Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin,” the official told the BBC. A former Nato official in London echoed that concern, saying that Gabbard’s nomination would raise serious questions about how the UK and other American allies approach the US intelligence community under Trump.
Getty Images Gabbard quit the Democrats in 2022 and announced in October that she was joining the Republican Party
“I think there’s an extreme level of discomfort because why would you appoint somebody who has got no background and wacky views to such a responsible position?” the former official said. But others did not expect any change to their country’s intelligence relationship with the US. Duncan Lewis led Australia’s domestic spy agency – the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation – through the early years of the first Trump administration. He said he did not know Gabbard, but stressed that the Australian-American alliance was more powerful than any individual. “Our bilateral security relationship is strong and long-standing, and I expect that to continue,” he told the BBC.
Gabbard’s path to confirmation
Each morning the DNI oversees what is included in the president’s daily briefing, giving them power to shape the US leader’s perceptions of the world and its threats. That is something that US senators will keep in mind when they consider Gabbard’s nomination, and that is what could make her Senate confirmation process contentious. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer and Democrat who served with Gabbard in the House of Representatives, told media outlet Puck that Trump’s DNI nominee “has expressed views that seem to preference adversaries”. “Certainly, it gave me pause, when I heard the nomination,” added Slotkin, who will vote on Gabbard’s confirmation as a newly-elected Michigan senator. James Lankford, a Republican who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that he and other senators will have many questions about Gabbard’s past comments, and the Assad meeting. But another Republican senator, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, said some of the criticism of Gabbard from Democratic colleagues – including that she was “compromised” – had been “totally ridiculous”. “It’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly. There’s no evidence that she’s a asset of another country,” he told NBC. And Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said that Gabbard was a “solid choice”, whom allies would find “extremely capable”. “There’s some questions on the Republican side; there’s some questions on the Democrat side,” he told the BBC. “What I’ve been telling everybody is just sit down and talk to her.” Additional reporting by Francis Scarr, BBC Monitoring
Donald Trump will ‘release UFO secrets’ when he returns to White House as new whistleblower hearing set for this week
New hearing on aliens is set to be held in the House on Wednesday. President-elect is also beginning to appoint his top team and outline his foreign policy – reportedly warning Vladimir Putin about Ukraine. Trump celebrated his clean sweep of the battleground states by playing a round of golf with his son Kai and Elon Musk.
WATCH THE SKIES Donald Trump will ‘release UFO secrets’ when he returns to White House as new whistleblower hearing set for this week
DONALD Trump’s crushing election victory means he is soon set to have the power to release UFO secrets.
Transparency champion Rep. Tim Burchett has revealed he’s had “signals” from Trump that his return to the White House would mean more information on the phenomena would be disclosed.
It comes as a new hearing on aliens is set to be held in the House on Wednesday which could see fresh details emerge with a former Naval commander set to testify.
Following his victory last week, President-elect Trump is also beginning to appoint his top team and outline his foreign policy – reportedly warning Vladimir Putin about Ukraine.
And Trump celebrated his clean sweep of the battleground states by playing a round of golf with granddaughter Kai and Elon Musk.
The president-elect officially flipped Arizona back to the red column on Sunday and finished the election with a stonking 312 electoral college votes.
2 Trump will now have the power to release files on UFOs
2 Trump with his granddaughter Kai at golf on Sunday Credit: X
2024 US Election Results Live Updates: Trump names immigration hawk Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff
The White House will spend its remaining $6 billion of Ukraine funding before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned of the global risks of ending US support for Kyiv. Sullivan said President Joe Biden is expected to go over top foreign policy issues when he meets with President-elect Trump Wednesday. The Ukrainians and European NATO members have been scrambling to reach out to Trump while making their own plans.
The White House will spend its remaining $6 billion of Ukraine funding before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday, warning of the global risks of ending US support for Kyiv.
Sullivan said President Joe Biden is expected to go over top foreign policy issues when he meets with President-elect Trump Wednesday in the Oval Office.
“The president will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand, and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these issues when he takes office,” Sullivan said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Biden has led an international coalition in support of Ukraine as it fights off invasion by Moscow, an effort at a crucial point following Russian military gains and an increasingly dire shortage of Ukrainian manpower.
Trump meantime has insisted that he could end the war in “a day,” possibly even before taking office, presumably as part of a deal that would require Kyiv to cede some of its lost territory to Moscow.
The Ukrainians and European NATO members have been scrambling to reach out to Trump while making their own plans for a world in which the US president appears far less supportive of Kyiv and of NATO, and more friendly to Russia.
Sullivan said a prime goal of the Biden administration in its remaining months, will be “to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine cede large swaths of territory as a precondition to peace talks, while Kyiv has adamantly refused to do so.
Nikki Haley issues scathing takedown of ‘Russian sympathizer’ Tulsi Gabbard and ‘liberal’ RFK Jr
Haley slammed Gabbard as “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” The former U.N. Ambassador in Trump’s first administration raised major concerns about Gabbar and RFK Jr. The former South Carolina governor branded the Kennedy family scion a “liberal’ whose healthcare inexperience may be costly to the nation. The comments come as Trump has made a string of controversial choices for the top jobs in his future administration. The New York Post has also implored the president-elect to “think twice” about some of his choices in an op-ed on Wednesday, calling them “distracting agents’ who won’t accomplish what Trump wants to accomplish’. The duo are among several controversial cabinet picks. The pair are among the top picks for the Health and Human Services secretary position, which will oversee 25 percent of the U.S. federal budget. The pick for the director of national security will be the first woman to hold the position.
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Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
Nikki Haley has launched into a blistering critique of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr, slamming the former as “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.”
The former United Nations Ambassador in Trump’s first administration raised major concerns about Gabbard, who was picked as director of national security, and RFK Jr, who was nominated Health and Human Services secretary, during her SiriusXM show Nikki Haley Live on Wednesday.
Haley first torched the one-time Democratic congresswoman’s stance on foreign policy, including her favorable positions of Russian and Syrian dictators.
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“She opposed ending the Iran nuclear deal. She opposed sanctions on Iran. She opposed designating the Iran military as terrorists who say death to America every single day,” the former South Carolina governor said.
“She said that Donald Trump turned the US into Saudi Arabia’s prostitute. This is going to be the future head of our national intelligence.”
The former GOP presidential contender then took a swipe at Gabbard’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, after the military veteran posted on X in February 2022 about “Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.”
Nikki Haley slammed Gabbard and RFK Jr’s nominations to Trump’s cabinet (SiriusXM/Nikki Haley/X)
Haley continued: “After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard literally blamed NATO, our Western alliance that’s responsible for countering Russia.
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“She blamed NATO for the attack on Ukraine, and the Russians and the Chinese echoed her talking points and her interviews on Russian and Chinese television.”
She also shared her disdain over Gabbard’s trip to Syria in January 2017 where she met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, branding it “disgusting” that the former Hawaii representative went to Syria “for a photo op.”
Haley, who Trump confirmed would not be rehired to his administration earlier this month, concluded: “So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China. No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back.”
She warned: “This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.”
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Turning her attention towards RFK Jr, Haley branded the Kennedy family scion a “liberal” whose healthcare inexperience may be costly to the nation.
RFK Jr and Gabbard behind Trump at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, on November 16. The duo are among several controversial cabinet picks (AFP via Getty Images)
“He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25 percent of our federal budget and has no background in health care,” she said.
“So some of you may think RFK is cool, some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and what’s in our vaccines, but we don’t know, when he is given reins to an agency, what decisions he’s going to make behind the scenes.”
Neither Gabbard nor RFK Jr have responded to the criticism.
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Haley’s comments comes as Trump has made a string of controversial choices for the top jobs in his future administration.
The New York Post’s editorial board, a Rupert Murdoch-owned, conservative paper, has also implored the president-elect to “rethink” some of his choices in an op-ed on Wednesday, calling Gabbard and Trump’s attorney general pick Matt Gaetz “dreadful.”
The conservative tabloid newspaper wrote: “They’re distracting chaos agents who won’t accomplish what Trump wants them to, and will most likely backfire on his agenda.”
Like Haley, the Post raised concerns that Gabbard could downplay global threats to Trump because she is too emotionally invested in foreign entities – citing her cozying up to Russian state media.
Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/nikki-haley-denounces-donald-trumps-call-with-vladimir-putin/