By
Four months into her tenure as the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard has proven her many critics right with one misjudgment after another. The DNI, for example, fired the National Intelligence Council’s leadership for presenting facts that the White House didn’t like. When pressed on the Signal chat scandal, she testified under oath about details that appeared to contradict reality.
In recent days, Gabbard has reportedly taken steps to politicize her agency’s inspector general’s office, while exploring ways to turn the president’s daily briefing into Fox News-style segments.
But her latest move is arguably the strangest. Politico reported:
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned of a ‘nuclear holocaust’ and chastised ‘warmongers’ for bringing the world ‘closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before’ in a foreboding video posted to social media on Tuesday. In the three-minute video, Gabbard details a recent visit to Hiroshima, Japan to learn more about the aftermath of the U.S. nuclear attack on the city in 1945 during World War II. The video features footage of Gabbard’s trip and archival footage showing victims, interspersed with Gabbard speaking directly to camera about the consequences of a nuclear attack.
Much of the three-minute video is unremarkable. Gabbard reflected on a recent visit to Hiroshima and talked about the significance of a nuclear threat in ways that are largely uncontroversial.
But one part of Gabbard’s message stood out as ... odd.
“As we stand here, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” she said toward the end of the video. “And perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to.”
So, a few things.
First, the suggestion that we’re currently “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before” is difficult to take seriously. I’d encourage Gabbard to read, for example, any good book about the Cold War.
Second, I noticed the DNI didn’t name which “warmongers” are trying to “foment” tensions between nuclear powers — the specifics matter. Who are these nefarious figures allegedly putting the world at great risk?
Third, the idea that the unnamed elite “warmongers” have secret nuclear bunkers seems quite bizarre, even by Gabbard standards.
In fact, the message was so strange that some of the Republican senators who voted to confirm her to her current position — despite her lack of qualifications and habit of echoing Russian propaganda — made no effort to defend her.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, for example, told Jewish Insider that “she obviously needs to change her meds.” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has a flair for classic understatements, added that Gabbard’s message was “very strange.”
Before the Senate confirmation vote on the former Hawaii congresswoman, a variety of former national security officials urged senators not to vote for her. In hindsight, perhaps the chamber’s GOP members should’ve heeded their warning.