Reports indicate Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, frequently consulted RT, a Russian news outlet, even after the US government labeled it a propaganda source.
According to a Thursday report by ABC News, Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trump’s choice to lead national intelligence, was a regular reader of RT news, continuing to follow the Russian outlet after the US government designated it as such.
The article suggests Gabbard’s RT readership disqualifies her from the position.
Trump’s mid-November announcement of Gabbard’s nomination sparked outrage among establishment figures, who view the appointment as a serious security risk.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz called Gabbard a “likely Russian asset,” echoing accusations the former Democratic Party member has faced for years. Hillary Clinton famously claimed in 2019 that Russia “groomed” Gabbard for the 2020 primaries, predicting an independent run later in the cycle. Gabbard, however, endorsed Joe Biden and withdrew from the race.
ABC News posited that Gabbard’s foreign policy stances stem not from covert recruitment, but rather from her unusual media consumption.
Anonymous sources told ABC News that Gabbard “regularly read and shared articles from the Russian news site RT”, despite the US government’s 2017 designation of RT as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.” ABC News added that “it was not clear to those former staffers whether or when she stopped frequenting the site.”
Gabbard, a National Guard veteran and current Army Reservist, has criticized prolonged US military engagements, arguing they don’t serve American interests.
While initially supportive of Biden’s Ukraine policy, her later skepticism has, according to ABC News, “most galvanized her critics in the national security sphere.”
Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, remaining independent for two years before joining the Republican Party in October at a Trump campaign rally.