Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard speaks up for Syrian Christians in confirmation hearing

CV NEWS FEED // Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard during her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday spoke out against controversial U.S. intelligence programs that she said strengthened al-Qaeda and gave rise to radical Islamist groups that persecute Christians in the Middle East.

Gabbard has frequently expressed skepticism of U.S. national security talking points, accusing officials of giving surreptitious support to terrorist organizations in order to overthrow foreign regimes. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, pointed out during Thursday’s hearing that Russian, Iranian, and Syrian officials had made similar claims, and asked Gabbard if she considered their “motives” before speaking out.

“Senator, as someone who enlisted in the military specifically because of al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack on 9/11 and committing myself and my life to doing what I could to defeat these terrorists,” Gabbard responded, “it was shocking and a betrayal to me and every person who was killed on 9/11, their families, and my brothers and sisters in uniform, when as a member of Congress I learned about President Obama’s dual programs that he had begun really to overthrow the regime of Syria….”

Tulsi Gabbard just nuked Mark Kelly back into space. pic.twitter.com/wpDrDU2lh0

— Murray (@Rothbard1776) January 30, 2025

Gabbard then recounted that, “through the CIA’s Timber Sycamore program that has now been made public,” the U.S. government began “working with and arming and equipping al-Qaeda in an effort to overthrow” the Syrian regime during the Obama administration, “starting yet another regime-change war in the Middle East.”

The Department of Defense also engaged in a train-and-equip program, “again begun under President Obama,” that is now “widely known” to have “ultimately resulted in over a half-a-billion dollars being used to train who they called moderate rebels but were actually fighters working with and aligned with al-Qaeda’s affiliate on the ground in Syria,” Gabbard continued, “all to move forward with their regime change and not acknowledging what was obvious at the time and what has unfortunately born true, which was that a regime-change war in Syria, much like the regime-change wars in Iraq, the toppling of Gaddafi and Mubarak, while these are all dictators, would likely result in the rise of Islamist extremists like al-Qaeda taking power.”

“I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime,” Gabbard said, “but today we have an Islamist extremist who is now in charge of Syria … who danced on the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack, who ruled over Idlib with an Islamist-extremist governance, and who has already begun to persecute and kill and arrest religious minorities like Christians in Syria.”

“Why that should be acceptable to anyone is beyond me,” she concluded. “It is certainly not in our interests.”

“I appreciate your answer, and thank you,” said Kelly. “My concern has to do with the tendency to repeat Russian and Syrian … and Iranian information and to discount what comes from our intelligence community.”

“Senator,” Gabbard replied, “every American deserves to know that people in our own government were providing support to our sworn enemy al-Qaeda. That should not be acceptable by anyone.”

“The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change,” Gabbard had said during an opening speech before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I want to warn the American people watching at home: You will hear lies and smears in this hearing that challenge my loyalty to and love for our country.”

Tulsi Gabbard: "I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi, or any dictator. I just hate Al-Qaeda." pic.twitter.com/8V12Lxbxdy

— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) January 30, 2025

“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States,” Gabbard continued in her opening remarks. “They used the same tactic against President Trump and failed.”

Gabbard noted that critics who have accused her of being the “puppet” of Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a yoga guru, fail to recognize “the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.”

“The fact is,” she added, “what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.”

DNI Director-designate @TulsiGabbard: Democrats have accused me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet — but what truly unsettles them is I refuse to be THEIR puppet. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/nphSJ26r1M

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 30, 2025

“I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator,” Gabbard said. “I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so-called ‘rebels.’”

She then quoted Biden administration National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who once told then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an email later leaked to the public that “Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”

“Well, Syria is now controlled by an al-Qaeda offshoot,” Gabbard said, “led by an Islamist Jihadist who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who is responsible for the killing of many American service members.”

Gabbard served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021. During her Congressional tenure, she represented a deep-blue district in Hawaii, and for several years was considered a rising star within the Democratic Party.

She mounted a longshot bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. A heated debate exchange between her and fellow candidate Kamala Harris went viral during the 2020 election cycle, with many crediting Gabbard for sinking Harris’ bid in the primaries.

In addition, Gabbard “served as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2013 to 2016,” CatholicVote previously reported, “resigning the position after deciding to endorse socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, for that year’s Democratic presidential nomination” over Clinton.

In 2020, Gabard “left the Democratic Party to become an independent, denouncing the party of which she had once been a vice chairwoman as ‘under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness,’” CatholicVote’s previous report noted.

In 2024, Gabbard endorsed Trump for president and appeared with him on the campaign trail on multiple occasions. Late last year, she joined the Republican Party.

In the months following Trump’s November announcement that he was nominating Gabbard to be his DNI, some Republicans joined Democrats in claiming that the former lawmaker is loyal to foreign adversaries. 

One week after Trump selected Gabbard, the president’s former 2024 Republican primary opponent Nikki Haley called Gabbard a “Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” on an episode of Haley’s SiriusXM show.