Watchdog: Revised Tax Filings For Trump FBI Pick Kash Patel’s Foundation Reveal Cynical Cash Grab for Patel’s Close Associate
Lobbyists Turned Insiders: Trump Has Nominated At Least 10 Lobbyists For Administration Positions
Those Who Know Best: Numerous High-Ranking Military Officials Oppose Hegseth Nomination Over Dangerous Desire To Politicize The Military
CFPB Issues Over a Billion Dollars to Americans Harmed in Credit Scams
Accountable.US Findings Spark Justice Gorsuch’s Recusal in High-Stakes Environmental Case
Site Menu

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, government watchdog Accountable.US urged the U.S. Senate to put national security above partisan loyalty tests by rejecting President-elect Trump’s uniquely irresponsible and reckless cabinet picks: Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary nominee Peter Hegseth, CIA Director nominee John Ratcliffe, and Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem. Senators should be especially wary amid new reporting that “Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs.”

“

No one gave Donald Trump a mandate to trade America’s national security in exchange for a cabinet full of unqualified and unfit loyalists. Protecting our national security requires integrity and experience, and these nominees have little of either. Putting such unserious people in serious positions of power is no laughing matter; it’s an incalculable risk to our public safety and security. The Senate must put our national security first by stopping these extreme nominees from overseeing it.”

Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk

WHY THESE TRUMP NOMINEES HAVE NO BUSINESS OVERSEEING OUR NATIONAL SECURITY: 

 Tulsi Gabbard, nominee to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI)

  • Tulsi Gabbard has “frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries, but in some cases, murderers, including the presidents of Syria and Russia.” Her nomination prompted former Trump national security adviser John Bolton to call for her to be investigated before she appears for a Senate hearing, calling her a “serious threat to our national security.”
  • Gabbard has repeated Russian propaganda such as claims that Ukraine has US funded biolabs, a claim called “traitorous” by former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and urging the US, Russia and Ukraine to “put geopolitics aside” and accept that Ukraine “will be a neutral country.”
  • In 2022, Russian state television hosts, while setting up a video clip of Tulsi Gabbard, referred to Gabbard as “our girlfriend Tulsi” and quipped that she was a Russian agent.
  • Gabbard secretly traveled to Syria in 2017 and met with dictator Bashar al Assad. This came after the Assad regime deployed chemical weapons, in 2013, against Syrian citizens when it “launched rockets carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin into the Ghouta district of Damascus, killing more than 1,400 people.” 
  • In 2020, Gabbard criticized the Trump administration’s killing of Qassem Soleimani, calling it an unconstitutional and illegal act of war with no justification, that did not make the American people safer. Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” He and his “Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”

Pete Hegseth, nominee to be Secretary of Defense

  • Hegseth has said that he believes women should not be allowed to serve in combat. 
  • In 2019, Hegseth pressured Donald Trump to pardon three servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes, including a Navy SEAL on trial for indiscriminately shooting at civilians, shooting a school-age girl from a sniper’s nest, and stabbing a teenage captive to death while in Iraq. 
  • In 2018, Hegseth defended Trump’s cozy interactions with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, stating, “I think [Kim] wants a picture with the American president” and that Kim “probably doesn’t love being the guy that has to murder his people all day long, probably wants some normalization, and let’s give it to him if we can make the world safer.”
  • Hegseth has criticized the United States’ support of Ukraine, stating that the U.S. “burned two decades of money” in Afghanistan and Iraq and was “tempted to do it again” in Ukraine. In contemplating a scenario where Putin wins in Ukraine Hegseth said he rejected the argument that Ukraine would be the start of a European invasion, “saying he doubted Putin would go ‘much further’ than the border of Poland.”
  • Hegseth was one of 12 national guard members removed from President Biden’s inaugural detail after being flagged for extremism, reportedly due to a white supremacist tattoo. 
  • Hegseth is facing  an allegation of sexual misconduct related to an incident in 2017.

Kristi Noem, nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security

  • In her book called “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” Noem lied several times about meeting with world leaders, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and French President Emmanuel Macron.
  • Noem described the U.S.’s southern border as a “war zone” when she sent National Guard troops there to supposedly stop drug smugglers and human traffickers. Despite her racist characterization of the border and those crossing it, records from the Guard show that the troops didn’t seize any drugs during their two-month stint at the border. There were zero confirmed encounters with “transnational criminals.”

John Ratcliffe, nominee to be the Director of the CIA

  • Since his original nomination in 2019, Democrats and Republicans alike have raised concerns that Ratcliffe is too partisan and politically motivated to lead the CIA, including then-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Richard Burr, who cautioned Trump’s advisers that Ratcliffe was too political for the post. 
  • As DNI during Trump’s first term, Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats from the 2016 election, despite objections from the intelligence committee. The move was criticized as Ratcliffe using intelligence to help Trump politically as the 2020 presidential election neared.
  • As a member of Congress, Ratcliffe falsely asserted to pro-Trump media outlets that there was a “secret society” of FBI officials working against Trump. The disinformation ballooned for two days, particularly by right-wing media and Republican members of Congress, until an ABC News story revealed the so-called “secret society” was a sarcastic comment made in passing via text. 

This week, Accountable.US launched the Trump Accountability War Room to scrutinize President-elect Trump’s appointments, executive actions, and legislative agenda. The first Trump administration was littered with officials using their offices for self-enrichment, all while gutting protections for Americans and harming families. Now, with the help of Project 2025, we face even more threats to American rights and freedoms and another four years of abuses of power and conflicts of interest.

###

back to top