Watchdog: With Tulsi Gabbard’s Confirmation Vote, Will Senators Roll The Dice With Our National Security Interests?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of a final Senate vote on the confirmation of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard expected to happen after midnight tonight, Accountable.US urged senators to put our national security before careless political loyalty to President Trump. 

“Any vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Intelligence Director is a vote to gamble with the nation’s national security interests recklessly,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “There’s no good reason why Russian state television would call Gabbard “our girlfriend.” Gabbard’s willingness to spread the propaganda of authoritarian foreign adversaries and her ties to a political operative roiled in wire fraud allegations do not instill confidence she will be a careful steward of U.S. national security secrets. Senators can’t pretend to overlook these glaring concerns, especially as Gabbard’s resume is like a Potemkin village when it comes to intelligence experience.”

A VOTE FOR GABBARD IS A VOTE FOR: 

Ties to Troubled Republican Campaign Operative

A recent Accountable.US report found that Gabbard has deep financial connections to Thomas Datwyler—a GOP campaign operative at the center of multiple campaign finance violations, dark money networks, and election scandals.

Datwyler currently serves as treasurer for over 380 Republican campaigns and political committees. He has been accused of wire fraud, funneling dark money into GOP PACs, using a deceased person’s name to skirt campaign finance laws, and managing finances for George Santos’s scandal-ridden campaign. Datwyler was also under a criminal campaign finance investigation in Mississippi as of August 2023. 

Despite this extensive record of financial misconduct, Datwyler is listed as the treasurer or principal officer of two nonprofits led by Gabbard—We Must Protect and We Must Protect Action Fund—raising major questions about the transparency, legality, and political motivations behind these organizations.

Lack of Intelligence Experience and Expertise

Gabbard’s professional background indicates no direct experience in deep intelligence. Current intelligence officials have expressed alarm at her nomination, with some privately considering resignation if she becomes DNI. Former CIA officer Rep. Abigail Spanberger called Gabbard “ill-prepared and unqualified,” noting she “traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators.”

Alarming Foreign Relations and National Security Risks

Gabbard has faced serious criticism for her “secret” 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite the Assad regime deploying chemical weapons against Syrian citizens in 2013, killing over 1,400 people.  Gabbard has repeated Russian propaganda such as claims that there are over two dozen U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine, a claim called “traitorous” by one Republican congressman, and urging the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine to “put geopolitics aside” and accept that Ukraine “will be a neutral country.”

In 2022, Russian state television played a clip of Gabbard reacting to comments made by President Biden that Putin cannot stay in power. While setting up the clip, the host refers to Gabbard as “our girlfriend Tulsi,” and a panelist “quipped” that she was a Russian agent.

Gabbard was briefly placed on a Transportation Security Administration watchlist after her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections triggered a government security algorithm. The incident raised concerns among security officials about her “unusual relationships overseas.”

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