WASHINGTON (AP) — As the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard is responsible for guarding America’s secrets and discovering threats from overseas.
As the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard is responsible for guarding America’s secrets and discovering threats from overseas. But when she made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday, her targets were President Donald Trump’s political enemies.
Escalating her attempts to undermine the long-settled conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency nearly a decade ago, she unspooled what she called unshakeable proof that then-President Barack Obama and his advisers plotted nothing short of a coup.
“They conspired to subvert the will of the American people,” she said, claiming they fabricated evidence to taint Trump’s victory.
Little of what she said was new, and much of it was baseless. Gabbard said her investigation into the former Democratic administration was designed to stop the weaponization of national security institutions, but it spurred more questions about her own independence atop a spying system intended to provide unvarnished intelligence.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who ran for president herself before joining Trump’s idiosyncratic political ecosystem, seemed prepared to use her presentation to burnish her own standing. She was trailed by her cinematographer husband, who held a video camera to capture the moment.
And Trump, who had previously expressed public doubts about Gabbard’s analysis of Iran’s nuclear program, appeared satisfied. He posted a video of her remarks, pinning them at the top of his social media feed.
It was a display that cemented Gabbard’s role as one of Trump’s chief agents of retribution, delivering official recognition of Trump’s grievances about the Russia investigation that shadowed his first term. The focus on a years-old scandal also served Trump’s attempts to shift attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case and questions about the president’s own association with an abuser of underage girls.
During her White House remarks, Gabbard said she has referred the documents to the Justice Department to consider for a possible criminal investigation.
Obama’s post-presidential office declined to comment Wednesday but issued a rare response a day earlier. “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” said Patrick Rodenbush, an Obama spokesman.
The White House rejected questions about the timing of Gabbard’s revelations and whether they were designed to curry favor with Trump or distract attention from the administration’s handling of files relating to Epstein.
