Dems Suggest Tulsi Gabbard Is 'Compromised'

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."
• Other Democrats have accused Gabbard without evidence of being a "Russian asset." Sen. Elizabeth Warren has claimed, without offering details, that Gabbard is in Russian President Vladimir "Putin's pocket."

• Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat just elected to the Senate, said he would not describe Gabbard as a Russian asset, but said she had "very questionable judgment." "The problem is if our foreign allies don't trust the head of our intelligence agencies, they'll stop sharing information with us," Schiff said on NBC's Meet the Press.
• 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 a asset of another country," he said on NBC.
• Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged having "lots of questions" for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence services. Lankford said that he wants to ask Gabbard about her meeting with Assad and some of her past comments about Russia. "We want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she's made and get them into full context," Lankford said.
• 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. The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow claimed Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons. Gabbard said she just voiced concerns about protecting the labs. Gabbard also has suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO.

(More Tulsi Gabbard stories.)