Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s nominee for the Director of National Intelligence, denied Thursday that she had any “love” for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but that she hated al-Qaeda even more, and was enraged when the Obama administration armed the terrorists in an attempt to topple him.
Gabbard was grilled for nearly three hours during an open session in the Senate Intelligence Committee, before taking more questions behind closed doors to discuss sensitive intelligence.
Democrat Senators zeroed in on a previous trip Gabbard had made to Syria and Lebanon.
As a Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard met with al-Assad in 2017, after the United States had called on him to step down over alleged atrocities committed by his government.
“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions, the use of chemical weapons and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people,” she told Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) about the controversial meeting.
Gabbard said she didn’t sense any concessions or signs of remorse in him.
“No, and I didn’t expect to, but I felt these issues were important to address,” she said.
Gabbard also recounted being “surprised that there was no one from the intelligence community or the State Department who reached out or showed any interest whatsoever.”
When asked whether meeting with al-Assad was good judgement, Gabbard said yes.
“I believe that leaders – whether you be in Congress or the president of the United States – can benefit greatly by going and engaging boots on the ground, learning and listening and meeting directly with people, whether they be adversaries or friends,” she said.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, denied ever meeting with any Hezbollah officials while in Lebanon, telling Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) that it was “an absurd accusation.”
She said her main concern has been with “extremist” Syrian rebels.
“I have no love for Assad or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that our leaders cozy up to Islamist extremists, calling them “rebels,” as Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton: “Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria,” Gabbard said in her opening statement. “Syria is now controlled by al-Qaeda offshoot HTS, led by an Islamist Jihadist who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who was responsible for the killing of many American soldiers.”
Gabbard recounted how former President Barack Obama and the CIA ran a $500 million operation to train and arm al Qaeda terrorists while attempting to topple Assad’s regime twelve years ago.
At the time, al Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra was on a genocidal rampage targeting ancient Christian villages like Maaloula, Syria and conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate had introduced legislation “aimed at stopping Obama from arming the Syrian rebel terrorists.”
“As someone who enlisted in the military specifically because of al Qaeda’s attack on 9/11 and committing myself and my life to doing what I could to defeat these terrorists, it was shocking and a betrayal to me and every person who was killed on 9/11, their families, and their 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 and being willing to, through the CIA Timber Sycamore program, that has now been made public, of working with and arming and equipping al Qaeda in an effort to overthrow that regime—starting yet another regime change war in the Middle East,” Gabbard said.
The former Democrat explained that the Department of Defense’s “Train and Equip” program, that began under Obama, “has widely been known, looked at and studied [and] ultimately resulted in over half a billion dollars being used to train who they called moderate rebels but actually were fighters working with and aligned with an al Qaeda affiliate on the ground in Syria.”
Gabbard stressed that the disastrous program moved forward despite it being “obvious at the time” that attempting “a regime change was in Syria, much like the regime change wars in Iraq, the toppling of Gaddafi and Mubarak, while these were all dictators, would likely result in the rise of Islamist extremists like al Qaeda taking power.”
Gabbard reiterated her concerns about the rise of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s rule in Syria.
“Today we have an Islamist extremist who is now in charge of Syria, who danced on the streets to celebrate the 911 attack, who ruled over Idlib with 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 said.
“I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime. But today we have an Islamist extremist who is now in charge of Syria,” Gabbard said.
Gabbard was one among three of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees appearing before Senate committees on Thursday.
Kash Patel, Trump’s picks for Director of National Intelligence and FBI Director, faced the Senate for the first time and Department of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee after being grilled in Wednesday by the Finance Committee.
The prediction platform Polymarket showed Kash Patel with the best chance of being confirmed, with 92 percent betting odds, while RFK Jr. stood at a 73 percent and Gabbard at 47 percent, Thursday afternoon.