Republicans deny Trump’s intelligence picks are ‘compromised’

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Republican senators on Sunday pushed back against Democratic criticism that Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. intelligence community, is “compromised” by her pro-Russia comments and secret meetings as a congresswomen, with the president of Syria, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and Iraq combat veteran, said she has concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence.

“I think she’s compromised,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to Gabbard’s 2017 trip to Syria, where she held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Gabbard was a member of the Democratic House of Representatives from Hawaii at the time.

“The US intelligence community has determined that she has troubling relationships with America’s enemies. And so it bothers me that she couldn’t pass the background check,” Duckworth said.

Gabbard, who announced last month that she would join the Republican Party, served in the National Guard for more than two decades. She was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and received a combat medical badge in 2005 for “participating in combat under hostile enemy fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III,” according to the Hawaii National Guard.

Duckworth’s comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans.

“It is wrong for her to say such ridiculous and downright dangerous things,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said on CNN, calling on Duckworth to retract her words. “The most dangerous thing she could say is that a US Army lieutenant colonel is compromised and is a Russian asset.”

In recent days, other Democrats have accused Gabbard, without evidence, of being a “Russian asset.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said without giving details that Gabbard is in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “pocket.”

Mullin and others say criticism from Democrats is rooted in the fact that Gabbard left their party and became an ally of Trump. Democrats say they are concerned that Gabbard’s election as national intelligence chief would jeopardize ties with allies and hand Russia a victory.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat just elected to the Senate, said he would not call Gabbard a Russian asset but said she had “very questionable judgment.”

“The problem is that if our foreign allies don’t trust our intelligence chiefs, they will stop sharing information with us,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In 2022, Gabbard supported one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The labs are part of international efforts to control outbreaks and stop biological weapons production, but Moscow claims Ukraine is using them to create deadly biological weapons. Gabbard said she had just raised concerns about protecting the labs.

Gabbard also suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine given its desire to join NATO.

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt said he thought it was “completely ridiculous” that Gabbard was being viewed as a Russian asset for having different political views.

“This is offensive. It’s an insult, frankly. There is no evidence that she is an asset of another country,” he said on NBC.

Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged he has “a lot of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence community. Lankford said on NBC that he wanted to question Gabbard about her meeting with Assad and some of her past comments about Russia.

“We want to know what the purpose was and what direction it was in. As a member of Congress, we want to have the opportunity to talk about past comments she has made and put them in full context,” Lankford said.