Trump hands intel post to Tulsi Gabbard, ex-Democrat with Assad controversy
Gabbard, a former congresswoman-turned Trump diehard, is likely to face scrutiny for her secret 2017 meeting with Syria's dictator.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has selected Tulsi Gabbard to be his next director of national intelligence, tapping on Wednesday the former Hawaii congresswoman with a controversial track record on Syria to lead the nation’s spy agencies.
Gabbard, a 43-year-old Iraq War veteran who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, made headlines three years earlier when she traveled in secret to regime-controlled Syria to meet with its president, Bashar al-Assad.
Gabbard, then a House Democrat, did not inform party leadership in advance of her weeklong trip. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle were outraged that a sitting member of Congress would meet with Assad, whom the United States had deemed a war criminal for using chemical weapons against his own people.
“I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering,” Gabbard said after her 2017 meeting.
