Yesterday, Senator Tammy Duckworth told CNN's Dana Bash that she felt Tulsi Gabbard was compromised and could not pass a background check. Duckworth also noted that Russian media refer to her as a Russian asset. That had several Trump flunkies in the Senate hopping mad, with Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri calling such charges "ridiculous," and Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma calling on Duckworth to retract her comments.
The slight problem with their faux outrage is that Duckworth was stating facts, and even Sen. Lankford of Oklahoma, another Republican but with a bit of common sense, said he had "concerns" over Gabbard's past comments.
Source: Newser
Republican senators pushed back on Sunday against criticism from Democrats that Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trump's pick to lead US intelligence services, is "compromised" by her comments supportive of Russia as well as secret meetings she attended as a congresswoman with Syria's president, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and veteran of combat missions in Iraq, said she had concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's choice to be director of national intelligence, the AP reports. "The US intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America's foes. And so my worry is that she couldn't pass a background check," Duckworth said.
Those comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans. "For her to say ridiculous and outright dangerous words like that is wrong," said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, challenging Duckworth to retract her words. "That's the most dangerous thing she could say—is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia."
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Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said he thought it was "totally ridiculous" that Gabbard was being cast as a Russian asset for having different political views. "It's a slur, quite frankly. There's no evidence that she's an asset of another country," he said on NBC.
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Gabbard in 2022 endorsed one of Russia's justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs working on some of the world's nastiest pathogens. ...Gabbard also has suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO.
And here's a clip from 2022 where Solovyov refers to Gabbard as "our girlfriend" for her useful habit of spreading Russian misinformation, that the U.S./NATO forced Russia into invading Ukraine, and so on. Whether Gabbard is paid directly by them or is just another useful idiot remains to be seen. Clearly, you don't want to give this person access to the highest levels of national intelligence.
