Tag Archive for: tulsi gabbard

Trump 2.0 Takes Chainsaw To The Deep State With Historic Cuts Of Staff, Budgets

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The intelligence community is quietly undergoing structural changes as agencies tackle government bloat, reorganize departments and dismantle the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

One of Trump’s first directives targeted weaponization in the federal government, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) — which oversees the IC — is focused on uprooting the politicization of the agency.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard launched the Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) in April to end government weaponization and increase transparency, and she recently announced that the agency is now 25% leaner.

“The 25% reduction in the staff includes both permanent ODNI cadre officers and detailees from other IC elements, who will be returned to their home agencies as ODNI streamlines its mission space,” a source familiar told the Daily Caller.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe is also eying politicization and potential waste in his agency.

“Director Ratcliffe has made it clear that the CIA will pursue President Trump’s national security priorities with laser-like focus,” CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons told the Daily Caller. “The Agency is determined to provide the President with an unparalleled intelligence advantage and, under Director Ratcliffe, we are aggressively doing just that.”

Ratcliffe vowed to restructure the CIA to “eliminate” politicization during a recent cabinet meeting with the president.

Similarly, Deputy Director Michael Ellis warned against politicization in a February message to CIA staff, noting their work needs “to be free from politics, bias, or any other distraction.”

Conservatives have accused the IC of politicization for years.

The FBI relied on the since since-debunked Steele dossier to accuse former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, of being a Russian agent. The bureau also reportedly surveilled school board parents and raided the homes of pro-life protesters.

Fifty-one former officials signed a letter casting doubt on the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s emails, falsely claiming it had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation, even though when Ratcliffe served as DNI during Trump’s first term, he determined there was no evidence Hunter Biden’s laptop was a “Russian disinformation campaign.”

Now, the IC is dealing with “deep state actors” leaking classified information to the press. Sources leaked to the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in May about the IC’s plans to surveille Greenland.

Gabbard slammed the leakers as “deep state actors” who are “politicizing and leaking classified information” in a statement to WSJ.

The CIA is being revamped, but Ratcliffe has not made the “kind of broad cuts” required of other agencies, a Thursday report from CNN claimed.

Although Trump’s federal workforce directives can include national security exemptions, Lyons told the Caller that Ratcliffe is zeroing-in on ways the agency can be more efficient.

“Under Director Ratcliffe, the CIA is implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders to ensure that the workforce is responsive to the Trump Administration’s national security priorities,” she stated. “Even if exemptions are available for national security reasons, the Director believes that CIA can improve efficiency, which is why he invited Mr. Musk to headquarters earlier this year for his insight.”

Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), visited the CIA and met with Ratcliffe in April to discuss DOGE’s efforts to improve government efficiency.

While the agency’s operations are often shrouded in secrecy, Ratcliffe fired officers involved in DEI and dismissed a CIA official who played a key role in Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military.

The Trump administration plans to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 people over multiple years, The Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar.

Ratcliffe emphasized “meritocracy” in an unclassified March 31 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.

“Moving forward, you will be part of a smaller, more elite and efficient workforce,” he wrote. “We will need everyone at CIA to prioritize efforts that add the greatest value and reduce those we can no longer afford to do.”

He added that “the years of growing budgets and resources are behind [CIA].”

The CIA is also reorienting its focus toward Latin America, specifically the drug cartels. This is a shift from the past two decades, where the CIA has been primarily concerned with Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the New York Times (NYT) reported in 2021.

Trump designated the cartels “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” in one of his first executive orders.

The CIA merged the Western Hemisphere Mission Center (WHMC) and the Counternarcotics Center (CNC) into one unit — the Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center (ACMC), according to an unclassified April 14 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.

Trump expects the agency to “play a prominent role” in targeting transnational cartels, the memo noted.

The CIA has reportedly been operating a covert drone program to identify fentanyl laboratories in Mexico, anonymous officials told the NYT.

The agency is considering using “lethal force” against Mexican drug cartels, a U.S. official and three people familiar told CNN in April. The CIA is reviewing its authorities and assessing the potential risks of targeting the cartels, according to the outlet.

The agency has also recently made efforts to improve intelligence collection on Russia and China.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is reportedly also facing cuts under Trump’s new vision for the IC. The agency has been ordered to slash “up to 2,000 civilian roles,” three people familiar told Recorded Future News.

The NSA is a signals intelligence (SIGNT) agency within the Department of Defense (DOD). Trump fired Biden-appointed NSA Director Timothy Haugh in April.

The NSA referred the Daily Caller to DOD for questions about restructuring.

“NSA is focused on carrying out the priorities of the President, Secretary of Defense, and Director of National Intelligence, which include evaluating and making strategic adjustments to its civilian workforce,” a DOD spokesperson told the Caller.

“As a combat support agency, NSA is working with the Department to meet [DOD’s] goals and ensure that workforce adjustments are conducted while we continue to execute NSA’s SIGINT and Cybersecurity missions,” the statement continued.

The DOD intends to target its “bloated headquarters,” Hegseth announced in early May.

He introduced the General and Flag Officer Reductions Policy, or the “Less Generals More GIs” directive in a video.

Hegseth ordered at least a 20% reduction of 4-star positions in the Active Component, 20% reduction of the National Guard’s general officers and a minimum 10% reduction in general and flag officers, according to a DOD memo.

“We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters’ elements to our warfighters,” Hegseth stated in the video.

He also directed $5.1 billion in “wasteful spending” cuts in accordance with DOGE’s findings in April.

However, the Trump administration has proposed a record $1 trillion defense budget — even though the Pentagon has yet to pass an audit.

The law enforcement arm of the IC is also not immune to restructuring.

Trump’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget includes a $545 million cut to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), citing a reduction in “DEI programs, pet projects of the [Biden] administration, and duplicative intelligence activities,” according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The proposal’s recommendations concern discretionary funding.

The Caller reached out to the FBI for comment on the budget proposal and examples of any waste, fraud or abuse the bureau has eliminated. The bureau referred the Caller to Patel’s comments during committee hearings.

FBI Director Kash Patel testified in May before the House Appropriations Committee and said the bureau was “trying to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”

Patel is reorganizing the agency to “streamline operations,” according to his May 8 opening statement. The FBI is “ensuring that the Bureau is a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” his statement added.

However, Patel pushed back against the OMB’s proposal to slash funding during his hearing. He told congressmembers the budget cuts were not what the FBI had requested.

“The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion which would not have us cut any positions … we need more than what has been proposed,” he told Democrat Connecticut Rep. Rose DeLauro.

Patel appeared to reverse his comments the following day, and he expressed support for OMB’s budget when testifying before the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee.

“We will make and agree with this budget as it stands and make it work,” he told Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen during the senate hearing.

“I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” Patel added.

Rep. DeLauro asked what positions would be cut due to the funding reduction, and Patel said he is not looking to cut positions.

“Ma’am, at this time, we have not looked at who to cut,” he answered. “We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut.”

In addition to restructuring the intelligence community’s workforce, Trump has sought to eliminate DEI from federal agencies.

The CIA, ODNI, FBI and NSA have made efforts to comply with Trump’s executive orders, including by removing DEI language from government websites.

Notably, the FBI closed its DEI office in December 2024.

DNI Gabbard told Trump during a cabinet meeting that she closed the IC Human Capital Office, deeming it a “DEI slush fund.”

Additionally, Gabbard fired over 100 intelligence staffers who were in sexually explicit NSA chats.

Former President Biden’s CIA Director William J. Burns prioritized DEI, a CIA official told the Caller.

Under the Trump administration, however, the agency has scrapped its DEI office.

“Director Burns made it clear that strengthening diversity and inclusion at CIA was one of his highest priorities,” the official said. “Under Director Ratcliffe, there has been a significant change — the DEI office has been shut down and mission objectives are prioritized instead.”

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Associate Editor.

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Trump Admin Wants A Record $1,000,000,000,000 Pentagon Budget — But Does America Need It?

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

100 Days In, Here’s How Trump Has Already Dismantled The Deep State

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President Donald Trump celebrated day 100 of his administration Tuesday, and he’s already dealt several blows to the deep state — from declassifying assassination files to revoking security clearances.

Since assuming her role as head of the intelligence community (IC), Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has attempted to root out politicization. She announced the Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG), a task force aimed at promoting transparency, in early April.

Gabbard also declassified the Biden administration’s “Strategic Implementation Plan For Countering Domestic Terrorism.” The strategy targeted gun rights, hate crimes and “misinformation.”

Trump directed Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi to work with Gabbard to declassify the assassination files of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK).

Gabbard declassified over 10,000 pages of RFK documents in April, following the release of nearly 80,000 pages of JFK files in March.

The MLK files have yet to be released, but Gabbard previously said they will be declassified.

At Trump’s directive, Gabbard also revoked the security clearances of various officials, including the 51 former national security officials who signed the letter casting doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop emails.

The infamous letter claimed the emails the New York Post reported had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Democratic New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken also had their security clearances revoked.

Former President Biden also no longer receives the President’s Daily Brief (PBD).

Moreover, Trump removed the security details of retired Gen. Mark Milley, John Bolton and Anthony Fauci.

While left-wing judges have attempted to thwart Trump’s agenda, particularly on immigration, the FBI recently arrested a Wisconsin judge for allegedly obstructing an immigration arrest.

“Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a since-deleted tweet.

An agency that has long abused its power, especially under the Biden administration, appears to be rolling back some firearms regulations.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) repealed Biden’s “Zero Tolerance Policy” and announced a review of two other gun regulations in April at the direction of AG Pam Bondi and then-Acting Director Kash Patel.

Trump also issued pardons to many prosecuted under the Biden administration, including around 1,500 January 6 defendants and 23 pro-life activists.

“Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government” was one of Trump’s first executive orders.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) requested information from the FBI regarding their investigations into January 6. The bureau handed over the names of employees involved in investigating January 6 to the DOJ in February, according to an email.

The president has appointed critics of the surveillance state to key positions, including Gabbard at DNI and Patel as FBI director. He’s also nominated people who have been critical of endless wars, including Elbridge Colby for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Trump has also taken a hammer to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with his executive orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several intelligence agencies have targeted DEI programs in compliance with Trump’s directives.

However, there are still areas that conservatives are pushing the Trump admin to address — including the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The DOJ gave right-wing influencers binders with the first tranche of “Epstein Files,” although they reportedly contained few revelations.

Others are pressing Trump’s intelligence agencies to clean house, specifically at the FBI.

Steven Jensen, a key FBI official in the January 6 investigations, was recently promoted to assistant director in charge (ADIC) at the Washington Field Office.

Gabbard said her office would revoke the security clearances of more than 100 staffers in February over sexually explicit chat messages on a National Security Agency (NSA) platform.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence State Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Declassified Document Reveals Biden’s Scheme To Spy On Americans

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The full extent of former President Joe Biden’s apparent lawfare seems to be coming to light.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified the Biden Administration’s “Strategic Implementation Plan For Countering Domestic Terrorism” on April 16. The fifteen-page document details “four pillars” of domestic terrorism response, as assessed by intelligence and law enforcement in March 2021.

How exactly did the administration plan to accomplish these lofty goals? By, it appears, increasing mass surveillance of the American people.

“Optimize and create, as appropriate, interagency federal and state level data sharing arrangements to improve real-time data and information sharing to identify individuals at risk in order to target interventions at the local, state, and federal level,” the declassified plan explains.

The administration hoped to drive “executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” Their goal has become law in Colorado, where Democratic Gov. Jared Polis recently approved an absurdly restrictive gun bill.

The document also references implementation of the bizarrely named “COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act,” signed into law in May 2021, as part of “improv[ing] federal hate crimes data and analysis to eliminate hate crimes under-reporting; mitigat[ing] xenophobia and bias, including by advancing inclusion in the nation’s COVID-19 response.” Are we to understand that the coronavirus was committing hate crimes against innocent pedestrians?

Perhaps most concerning are details of the administration’s attempts at ideological control.

“Norms of non-violent political expression and rejection of racism and bigotry are strengthened,” reads the document. “Americans have increasing faith in democracy and government.”

The neat gloss of “fighting racism” permits the administration enormous discretion in deciding who qualifies as a domestic problem. Democrats have bloated and contorted the definitions of “racism,” “bigotry,” and “democracy” beyond recognition in recent years — often in service of dismissing the concerns of Republican voters. A recent speech reveals just how Biden feels about Trump supporters.

“We can’t go on like this with a nation as divided as we are. It’s never been this divided. Granted, it’s roughly 30%, but it’s a 30% that has no heart,” said the former president.

Biden announced the creation of the nation’s first “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” in June 2021. The strategy, as explained to the public, justified itself by dual reasoning: a “resurgence” of racially motivated violence, attacks against government institutions, and associated individuals. Among the latter, according to the document, were the January 6, 2021, protests which culminated in protesters occupying the Capitol.

“Americans witnessed an unprecedented attack against a core institution of our democracy: the U.S. Congress,” the document claims.

Also unprecedented was the Biden administration’s campaign against political rivals under the guise of fighting domestic terrorism.

AUTHOR

Natalie Sandoval

Contributor. Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republised with permission. ©All rights reserved.

JFK Files Reveal New Depths Of CIA Incompetence

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Newly declassified documents related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination shed additional light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) surveillance of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, in the weeks leading up to JFK’s death.

Documents reveal that the CIA tapped the phones at Cuban and Soviet diplomatic facilities in Mexico City, according to journalist Steven Portnoy. Oswald traveled there multiple times to meet with officials just weeks prior to the assassination. It was previously known that the CIA was aware of Oswald’s travels — a fact they withheld from the Warren Commission — but details about CIA wiretapping were classified until Tuesday.

“The docs dropped last night add more specifics about the CIA’s operations, namely in Mexico City, where Oswald met with Cuban and Soviet Officials in Sept. 1963,” he said. “These docs reveal how the CIA tapped phones of the Cuban and Soviet diplomatic facilities, information that had been classified until now.”

Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

Oswald lived in the USSR from October 1959 to June 1962. Soviet spies, however, did not want him in the country permanently, particularly after his suicide attempt, according to a previously released CIA document. His trips to the embassy in Mexico City were allegedly to try to obtain a visa to return to the USSR, documents show.

The newly-released documents also reveal how a JFK advisor issued a warning to Kennedy about the CIA’s influence over foreign policy. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JFK’s nephew, previously discussed how his uncle was “at war” with his military and intelligence community over his desire to keep the U.S. out of regime-change wars.

Jefferson Morley, a JFK assassination expert, noted that one memo from Arthur Schlesinger Jr. told JFK that “CIA encroachment on the traditional functions of state” affected his ability to direct foreign policy without the CIA’s influence.

Schlesinger was a historian and served as Special Assistant to JFK from 1961 to 1963, according to his biography in Foreign Affairs.

Schlesinger argued that the “CIA has, in effect, ‘made’ policy in many parts of the world.”

In another letter from Schlesinger, he called the agency a “state within a state.”

“The contemporary CIA possesses many of the characteristics of a state within a state,” he wrote.

Another previously redacted memo was released Tuesday without redactions. It demonstrated that a CIA source, Samuel Cummings, owned the International Armament Corp, and Intercarmo. Interarmco reportedly was a supplier for the sporting goods store at which Oswald allegedly purchased the firearm used to kill JFK.

Cummings was the largest private weapons dealer in the world, and he sold arms to Cuba’s Fidel Castro, among others, The Washington Post reported in 1981. A lawsuit by Armco Steel forced him to change Interarmco to Interarms, the outlet noted.

“These items were to remain the property of the CIA, and their cost was to be returned to the Agency after they were sold,” the CIA document revealed.

Morley revealed that he reached out to the CIA regarding the popular “Who Killed JFK?” podcast the week prior to the March 18 document release. Morley said a spokesperson called him and spoke to him off the record on March 18 and then sent him a statement.

“The notion that CIA was involved in the death of John F. Kennedy is absolutely false,” the statement read.

On Monday, President Trump said “80,000 pages” of documents would be released. Over 60,000 pages and more than 2,000 files were published Tuesday night.

Trump signed an executive order in January mandating the declassification of the assassination files of JFK, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intellegence state reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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JFK FILES: JFK, Jr. Warned that Joe Biden was a ‘Traitor’ to the U.S.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump Administration Releases JFK Assassination Files

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The Trump administration released 80,000 pages of previously classified President John. F Kennedy assassination files late Tuesday.

President Trump signed an executive order in January directing Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard to present him with a plan on releasing the files within 15 days.

The order also directed the AG and DNI to present a plan within 45 days to release the assassination files of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Then, Trump unexpectedly announced Monday that the files would be released the following day, unredacted. They were released Tuesday around 6 p.m., some appearing to be at least partially redacted. However, some redacted files that had previously been redacted now appear to be unsealed.

“We are announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files,” Trump said yesterday. “So people have been waiting for decades for this, and I’ve reached out to my people.”

Trump said on Monday he doesn’t believe there would be redactions in the approximately 80,000 pages of documents.

“We have a tremendous amount of paper and a lot of reading,” Trump said. “I don’t believe we are going to redact anything. I said ‘just don’t redact it, you can’t redact it.’”

The National Archives in 2017 released nearly 3,000 records concerning the JFK assassination.

The FBI discovered an additional 2,400 records related to JFK in February. The bureau said they were “previously unrecognized” as pertaining to the JFK assassination.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is still in the process of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein Files.

Backlash circulated online when the first phase of files was distributed to conservative influencers through binders and reportedly contained few revelations. Bondi accused the FBI Field Office in New York of deliberately hiding thousands of pages of Epstein files in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Feb. 27. She demanded the bureau deliver the “full and complete Epstein files” to her office by 8 a.m. on Feb. 28.

Bondi said she received a “truckload” of files from the FBI in New York but did not give a timeline as to when she would release those to the public.

As of publication, those Epstein files have yet to be released.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese in March that DNI Gabbard and the DOJ are “working…diligently” to release the Epstein and JFK files.

Leavitt stated during the briefing that she also does not have a timeline for the release of the Epstein documents.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence state reporter.

RELATED ARTILES:

House Task Force Seeks To Declassify JFK Files, Epstein’s List, COVID Origins Docs And Other ‘Government Secrets’

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Tulsi Gabbard Strips Security Clearances Of 51 Officials Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Monday that she has revoked the security clearances of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the letter casting doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop emails.

Those officials are now blocked from accessing classified information, and the directive also applies to other former and current officials, including Democratic New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Former President Biden is also no longer receiving the President’s Daily Brief (PBD), according to Gabbard. The PBD is a daily summary of information pertaining to national security, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

“Per President Trump’s directive, I have revoked security clearances and barred access to classified information for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and Andrew Weissman, along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden ‘disinformation’ letter,” Gabbard tweeted. “The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden.”

The 51 former intelligence officials signed a letter in 2020 claiming the emails reported by the New York Post had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Former DNI James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan were among those who signed the letter and subsequently lost their security clearances.

An email sent to Hunter Biden in April 2015 from a Burisma executive concerning an introduction to then-Vice President Joe Biden was authentic, the Daily Caller News Foundation first confirmed.

Trump ordered for the security clearances of various former and current officials to be revoked, the New York Post reported in February.

These officials included former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and Bragg.

Bragg prosecuted Trump and secured a conviction of 34 felony counts relating to allegations that he falsified New York business records to try to “corrupt the 2016 election.”

In September 2022, James sued Trump and claimed he gave false financial statements. After the 2024 election, she vowed to continue prosecuting Trump in court.

Trump announced his intent to terminate Biden’s security clearance and access to daily intelligence briefings in February.

“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote. (RELATED: Donald Trump Opens Second Term With Several Shots In War Against The Deep State)

“He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.”

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence state reporter.

REPORT ARTICLES:

Trump Suspending Security Clearances Of Intel Officials Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

Tulsi Gabbard Reveals Plans To ‘End Politization’ Of Intel Agencies On Day One In Office

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republihed with permission. All rights reserved.

Inside JD Vance’s Tone-Setting Trip To The Southern Border

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EAGLE PASS, Texas – As the vice president’s motorcade zipped by a long stretch of border wall Tuesday, the barrier quickly turned from solid structure to a patchwork of old train cars and razor wire.

The motorcade turned into Shelby Park, an area Gov. Greg Abbott seized so officials could put up razor wire and barriers to help deter crossings coming from the Rio Grande. Standing in the middle of the park at a podium, the location quickly became symbolic of how the administration is addressing the border crisis.

“I think the president’s hope is that by the end of the term, we build the entire border wall. And, of course, that’s the physical structure, the border wall itself,” the vice president said in response to the Daily Caller’s question about how much of the border needs to be walled off before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Just about six weeks into the administration, Vance was at the border and he didn’t go alone. Vance spent the entire day trip with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They did an aerial tour of the American side of the border in a Black Hawk, visited border facilities and met with lawmakers, border patrol agents and other leaders.

At Eagle Pass, Texas, which was once a hub of illegal immigrants crossing the border, he touted the administration’s progress at mitigating the migration crisis.

“I will say that the most heartening message that I take away from my visit here at the Texas border is the number of border patrol agents who have come up to me and said, ‘thank you,’” Vance told reporters.

“Or said, ‘Because of this, we’ve cut the number of border crossings from 1,500 a day to 30 a day.’ Or the people who have come up and said, ‘we’ve seen a reduction of 85% of the number of people who are dying at the American southern border,’ and every single day that we continue to keep this border safe, that means less migrant crime, that means less fentanyl coming into our communities,” Vance continued at his press conference.

About five months earlier, Vance’s predecessor stopped at the southern border while making a run for the White House. Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign planned a stop to visit a section of the border in Douglas, Arizona, where she gave remarks and called for a solution to the border crisis. It was her first trip to a section of the southern border in three years, after Biden gave her the job of addressing the “root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.” 

At the time, an analysis by The New York Times found that under the Biden administration, the level of net migration into the country was the largest in the country’s history. The 2024 U.S. fiscal year was the second worst in history for illegal immigration.

Since taking office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders, like a national emergency declaration allowing him to divert more military resources to the U.S.-Mexico border and another to resume border wall construction. Other executive orders included a designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a pause on refugee admissions and an end to birthright citizenship for individuals born on U.S. soil to illegal migrant parents.

There were 101,790 migrant encounters at the southern border in September, the final month of fiscal year 2024, according to data released Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The Trump administration has touted figures trying to show how its actions in roughly the first month have dramatically impacted the border crisis. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the administration marked the lowest single-day apprehension number in over 15 years, with 200 migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border on Feb. 22. Trump also announced that during his first few weeks in office there were 8,326 migrant apprehensions at the border.

To build on this, Vance repeatedly referenced a line from Trump’s joint congressional address the night before.

“As you saw, the president said yesterday, I think it’s maybe the most important part of his speech, is that we didn’t need new laws to secure the border. We needed a new president, and thank God we have that,” Vance said to a group of Texas and border patrol leaders Wednesday.

“I’ve heard already from a number of the folks that I’ve talked to in border patrol, that all we needed to do was empower these guys to do their job,” he continued.

The trip was not just about celebrating. After taking an aerial tour of the border, the trio of administration officials visited Eagle Pass Border Patrol Station to participate in a roundtable with a variety of leaders, including Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the mayor of Eagle Pass, the chief of Border Patrol and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, to discuss further how they could get the border under control.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Vance acknowledged that the administration had more work to do.

“First of all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we have seen pretty significant decreases in deportations and apprehensions and arrests. But we have to remember that President Biden gutted the entire immigration enforcement regime of this country. We are trying to rebuild so that we actually empower people to enforce the immigration laws,” the vice president told reporters.

He also hinted that Trump has more announcements coming on how the administration will secure the southern border, a topic that is sometimes overlooked as the media focuses on Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. “I don’t want to get ahead of any public announcements, but one of the ways that we wanted to make sure that we’re enforcing our border is that we make it easier for people who are here illegally to go back home of their own accord,” Vance explained.

“We don’t want to have to go around and arrest every person, but we will enforce the American people’s immigration laws if you’re here illegally, the message from our administration is, you should go back home,” Vance added. “If you want to come to the United States, apply through the proper channels, that’s an important thing that we’re doing.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House reporter. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Gabbard Says ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’ is Biggest National Security Threat, and Now Her Real Work Begins

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In a sane political environment, this would have passed as a decidedly unremarkable, albeit not quite one-hundred-percent accurate, observation. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, recently warned that “radical Islamist terrorism” is the biggest national security threat the nation faces today.

Well, of course. The top terror groups worldwide are all Islamic. On September 11, 2001, Islamic jihadis carried out the largest-ever terror attack on American soil. Numerous other Islamic jihad attacks have taken place in the U.S., at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, New Orleans, and numerous other places. The Biden regime caught numerous people on the terror watch list crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, and released at least 99 of them into the country. Gabbard was therefore making an entirely reasonable assessment.

Gabbard said: “We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism ​​here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes.”

For Gabbard to speak of “radical Islamist terrorism” was not quite accurate, as there is nothing “radical” about Islamic jihad violence. It is mainstream and deeply rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah. And “Islamist” is a phony word that corresponds to nothing in Islamic theology. It is just an attempt to distance Islam from the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings.

Nevertheless, her statement was a tremendous improvement over the Biden regime. FBI director Christopher Wray testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2021, saying: “The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”

Old Joe Biden then said it during his speech to a Joint Session of Congress in April 2021: “we won’t ignore what our own intelligence agencies have determined – the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”

The following month, a revealing piece in Yahoo News by “journalist” Alexander Nazaryan stated that Biden’s desperately corrupt and partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland “told Congress on Wednesday that violence incited by white supremacists poses ‘the most dangerous threat to our democracy.’ That assertion reflects near-universal consensus among national security experts, including those who worked for the Trump administration.”

In June 2021, Biden doubled down: “As I said in my address to the joint session of Congress: According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda — white supremacists. That’s not me; that’s the intelligence community under both Trump and under my administration.”

The agenda of Old Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and their henchmen was obvious and insidious: they intended to find those white supremacist terrorists, and prosecute and destroy them. They had no anxiety about the prospect of not finding those white supremacists in sufficient numbers, because by “white supremacists” they actually meant law-abiding patriots who dissented from the left’s political agenda. The Garland “Justice” Department, which should have been rebranded as the Partisan Vengeance Department, wasn’t content with persecuting Donald Trump. It also sicced the FBI on angry parents protesting at school board meetings, worked with Twitter (X) and other social media giants to silence and deplatform people with opposing views, and even sent spies into Catholic churches to keep tabs on pro-lifers.

That’s what Biden, Garland, Wray and the rest meant by a “white supremacist terror threat.” Now Gabbard has swept all that aside and begun the road back to realism and honesty regarding where the real terror threat is coming from. The problem she faces is that the views of Biden, Garland and Wray have been spread for years within the intelligence community, not just during the Biden regime, but during the Obama years as well. If she doesn’t manage to root it out in its entirety, it will continue to do damage to law-abiding Americans. All patriots should be hoping that at this critical juncture, Tulsi Gabbard succeeds in the monumental task before her.

AUTHOR

Robert Spencer

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

How Senate Sherpa JD Vance Helped Guide MAGA’s Favorite Cabinet Picks To Confirmation

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The MAGA coalition had been holding its breath for nearly two months, anxious to see if Trump’s embattled cabinet picks, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., could make it through confirmation.

Then, in the span of a few hours on the first Tuesday of February, both picks’ confirmation chances went from possible to almost certain as two Republican hold-outs announced they would vote in favor.

The MAGA coalition could breathe again.

Republican senators Todd Young and Bill Cassidy announced their support of Gabbard and Kennedy, respectively, at the eleventh hour after weeks of hesitancy. It seemed something drastic had happened to change their minds. As observers sorted through clues as to what caused the sudden shift, one key factor emerged: Vice President JD Vance.

Young hinted that Vance had helped him through “extensive conversations” about confirming Gabbard to the director of national intelligence post. Cassidy thanked the vice president for his “honest counsel” as he mulled whether to support Kennedy for Health and Human Services secretary.

But sources familiar with the situation told the Daily Caller that getting Young and Cassidy’s support was actually months in the making, as Vance worked tirelessly behind the scenes whipping votes for President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Ahead of taking office, Trump and others on his transition team planned for Vance to play a role in helping nominees through the confirmation process because of his strong relationships in the Senate, a source familiar with the situation told the Caller.

In the months leading up to his swearing in as vice president, Vance was busy battling with legacy media hosts and casting votes against Biden’s judicial nominations. But he also spent his time making sure his Senate colleagues were warming up to his boss’s cabinet nominations.

Vance’s work began well before Inauguration Day, including several conversations with Senator Young regarding the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard, sources familiar with the situation told the Caller. It was in the days before the confirmation vote that the vice president’s work intensified, one source added.

For some holding out on supporting Gabbard until the very end of the process, including Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, there were concerns about Gabbard’s stances on National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Act, which she previously opposed.

Vance was able to patiently work through these issues with his former colleagues, Young suggested.

“He was respectful, he listened a lot more than he talked, and he, frankly, he seemed to be effective on his end in getting from me the sort of concessions that were required to get to a yes,” Young told reporters. The senator’s vote was the final ‘yes’ needed for the administration to have confidence in Gabbard’s nomination.

“So that’s it. I mean, he came through. He delivered for me, and I’m grateful for that,” Young added about the concessions Vance was able to secure for him.

A source familiar with the situation contested that Sen. Young got any “concessions” from Gabbard, pointing to the letter he posted on Twitter and arguing that everything she had written in the letter, Gabbard had already spoken about.

During the confirmation process, the source added that Vance was helpful in persuading Senators who were on the fence about Gabbard. The source was confident that the vice president was key in getting Young the letter from Gabbard, which ultimately helped move his vote to a yes.

Young also provided a window into Trump’s apparent thinking when he tasked Vance with seeing his cabinet nominees through confirmation.

“I think he’s been tasked with this role because of his pre-existing relationship with us,” Young told reporters.

Vance has a pull that everyone on the Hill appears to be noticing, and it’s not limited to cabinet picks.

“Whether you’re there two years or 12 years, there is connective tissue — like, I sat in your chair,” one senior Republican aide previously told Politico of the weight Vance carries with the Republican caucus in the Senate.

Though Cassidy, who was key in helping Kennedy get confirmed, said the concessions he received were from the “administration,” the senator admitted that he had spoken to Vance honestly about the nomination. The two especially discussed RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine views. Cassidy’s office referred the Caller to his tweet and floor speech on the matter in which he said the administration sought to reassure him “regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination.”

In his floor speech ahead of Kennedy’s vote, Cassidy added that Kennedy, alongside the administration, pledged to maintain a key federal advisory board and to allow the Senator input on hiring decisions for the Department of Health and Human Services. This week, the first meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee was postponed after Kennedy took office.

“All I know is that Vance definitely made the difference. Don’t know specifics about the conversations. But after his visits, Bobby had the votes,” an RFK Jr. ally told the Caller, adding that the cabinet secretary also spent a lot of time in talks with Cassidy to help secure his vote.

Kash Patel, confirmed as FBI Director on Thursday by a 51-49 vote, with Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting against, at first was the target of the bulk of Democrat complaints. As the minority party shifted their ire to Gabbard and Kennedy, Patel’s confirmation process started to fly under the radar. As such, Vance’s hand in getting Patel in as FBI director has gone relatively unnoticed.

After Patel’s nomination, one former government official told CBS News that he was ‘by far the most dangerous pick.” Slate decried Patel’s “enemies list.” NBC News wrote that he previously helped host a show for “a conspiracy-filled, far-right media organization,” referring to the Epoch Times.

But the complaints quickly subsided as Patel took to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators.

One source previously told the Caller that Patel’s path to an easy confirmation can in part be attributed to his commitment to advancing the MAGA agenda and how that drove him to continue cultivating relationships with senate Republicans, even while Trump was out of office. That work led to Patel garnering early support from Republicans without facing any publicly voiced opposition. Additional lobbying from Vance was not as necessary as other Trump picks, a source familiar with the situation told the Caller.

Still, Vance did play a role in helping Patel get nominated in the first place. The vice president, a source familiar with the situation said, helped lay the groundwork among Senate colleagues ahead of Inauguration Day to get them comfortable with Patel’s eventual nomination.

“Our members trust him, which is really important,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune previously told reporters about Vance.

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Tulsi Gabbard Reveals Plans To ‘End Politicization’ Of Intel Agencies On Day One In Office

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President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, will prioritize ending politicization of the Intelligence Community (IC) and restoring transparency, according to a list of priorities obtained by the Daily Caller.

The Senate confirmed Gabbard as DNI on Wednesday. Her day one priorities highlight politicization and the need for unbiased intelligence collection.

“End politicization of the IC and ensure clear mission focus to the IC on its core mission of unbiased, apolitical collection and analysis of intelligence to secure our nation” the document reads.

She assailed weaponization of the intelligence community during her confirmation hearing’s opening statement, citing Trump’s reelection as a “clear mandate” to end weaponization of the intelligence agencies.

She specifically pointed to the 51 former national security officials who signed a letter implying the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story was a “Russian information operation.” That was proven false and Trump recently revoked the officials’ security clearances.

Gabbard will also work to restore trust “through transparency and accountability,” the document said, calling the priority a “national security imperative.”

Two Republican senators who were initially hesitant to support Gabbard, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, cited the ODNI’s bloated size in their endorsements of Gabbard.

Collins said in a statement that the ODNI is too expansive and that Gabbard shares her “vision of returning the agency to its intended size.”

Gabbard will also work to “address efficiency, redundancy, and effectiveness across ODNI to ensure focus of personnel and resources is focused on our core mission of national security” on day one.

Gabbard will also prioritize assessing threats and identifying gaps in intelligence.

“Assess the global threat environment and where gaps in our intelligence exist, integrate intelligence elements, increase information-sharing, and ensure unbiased, apolitical, objective collection and analysis to support the President and policymakers’ decision-making,” the document reads.

She also plans to collaborate with Congress, specifically the Senate Intelligence Committee, on these issues. Senators expressed frustration about intelligence failures during her meetings, citing a “lack of responsiveness” to information requests, according to the document. There have been several major intelligence blunders under past DNIs, including the Afghanistan withdrawal and terrorists taking over Syria after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The document also referenced “failures to identify” the origins of COVID-19. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said in January that it now believes the virus came from a lab in China, according to The New York Times. The agency reached this determination with “low confidence.” This typically indicates that the agency making the determination lacked sufficient credible information or had concerns or issues regarding their sources, according to the DNI’s website.

“Lt. Col. Gabbard looks forward to working with Senators and the Intelligence Committee directly on those issues,” the document concludes.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence state reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Tulsi Gabbard’s Critics Ushered In An Era Of Civil Rights Abuses And Intel Failures

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Tulsi Gabbard’s skeptics in the Senate have questioned her qualifications for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), but past DNIs who were confirmed with bipartisan support oversaw flagrant civil liberties abuses and major intelligence failures.

Many of the Democrats, and even some of the Republicans, who have expressed skepticism toward Gabbard supported her predecessors in the Biden and Obama administrations.

Gabbard’s harshest opponent, Virginia Democrat and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Mark Warner, implied in his opening statement that she may be legally unqualified for the position. The DNI is required to have “extensive national security expertise,” Warner said.

Gabbard is a Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard, and she served in the Army National Guard for over twenty years where she was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. Gabbard also served on the House Armed Services committee as a member of Congress from 2013 to 2021.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has been notably silent on Gabbard’s nomination. He was also one of the Republicans who voted against confirming Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.

During a floor speech in January, McConnell said he would support Trump’s national security picks “whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not liabilities, in the pursuit of peace through strength.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins previously expressed doubts about Gabbard’s position on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits warrantless spying on American citizens. Gabbard previously opposed Section 702, introducing the Protect Our Civil Liberties Act with Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie in 2020. The legislation would have repealed the USA Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act.

But in January, Gabbard told Punchbowl News she would “uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702.” She also said there are now reforms in place that address her concerns. Then, in a move that surprised some, Collins announced Monday she’d support Gabbard’s confirmation.

James Lankford is pressing Tulsi on whether Snowden is a “traitor.” The problem with this is that I’ve never seen Lankford offer even a whisper of criticism of James Clapper, who was the DNI at the time of the Snowden leaks, and who lied under oath to Congress about the extent of…

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) January 30, 2025

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and Indiana Sen. Todd Young are among the other Republicans who had expressed skepticism toward Gabbard, including over her refusal to label Edward Snowden a “traitor,” although both have joined Collins in backing her.

Despite Gabbard going through the gauntlet, previous DNIs in the Biden and Obama administrations faced much less scrutiny.

🚨 “In Jan 21, Avril Haines, President-elect Biden’s pick to be the DNI, was the first of Biden’s cabinet nominees to be confirmed in a strongly bipartisan 84-10 vote. Trump and ⁦@TulsiGabbard⁩ deserve the same consideration from Senate Dems.” https://t.co/ezZCbfTL3C

— Alexa Henning (@alexahenning) January 18, 2025

Biden’s DNI, Avril Haines, was confirmed 84-10 with support from Republican skeptics of Gabbard like Sens. Collins, Young, Lankford, and McConnell, as well as Warner. Obama’s DNI, James Clapper, was confirmed with a unanimous voice vote. Neither Collins nor McConnell were identified as having any opposition to Clapper’s confirmation. Clapper’s nomination was also unanimously approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

One former national security official told the Caller that these DNIs oversaw “massive failures” during their tenure.

When Haines was DNI, the U.S. botched its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and was seemingly caught off guard by the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Before Haines, there was Clapper, who allegedly lied to Congress about overseeing a mass NSA surveillance program that spied on Americans. Clapper was also at his post when terrorists attacked and killed Americans at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

Despite this litany of past failures and abuses, Gabbard’s confirmation is on the line amid opposition from both parties.

“I think that the intelligence committee often now regards itself as representing the interests of the [IC] to Congress,” Alex Marthews, national chair of the civil liberties group Restore the Fourth, told the Caller.

Haines oversaw numerous intelligence debacles during the Biden administration.

In August 2021, Biden withdrew the U.S. from Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of 13 U.S. troops working to evacuate Afghan allies after Kabul was overtaken by the Taliban.

A former national security official previously told the Caller that American lives were lost because of a “failure to collect intelligence in Afghanistan.” Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies did not predict how rapidly the Taliban would gain power, according to an October 2021 Wall Street Journal report.

“There’s no question that as you pull out … our intelligence collection is diminished,” Haines said at the 2021 Intelligence & National Security Summit, after the withdrawal. “In Afghanistan, we will want to monitor any reconstitution of terrorist groups.”

Prior to serving as DNI, Haines served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she worked under CIA director John Brennan — one of the officials who signed onto the letter doubting the authenticity of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.

In 2014, when Haines was deputy CIA director, The New York Times reported CIA staffers hacked a Senate Intelligence Committee computer network used to prepare a scathing report on the agency’s torture program.

An inspector general report revealed the CIA unlawfully gained access to the computers, forcing Brennan to issue an apology to members of the Senate Intelligence committee, including then-Chairwoman Democratic California Sen. Diane Feinstein.

Brennan created an “accountability board” to review the spying, which recommended against disciplining those CIA officials. Haines agreed with the conclusion and told the Daily Beast she found the Board’s assessment “persuasive,” generating backlash from progressives.

Left-wing activists opposed Haines’ nomination over the CIA torture report, among other reasons, yet Haines sailed through her confirmation process. Progressives have since offered little support to Gabbard, even as she has echoed many of their concerns over the surveillance state and endless wars.

Obama’s DNI James Clapper was caught up in multiple scandals throughout his time in charge of the intelligence community.

Clapper propagated the “Russian collusion” narrative against Trump and oversaw the mass surveillance of Americans.

Clapper claimed in 2013 that the NSA does not collect data on Americans. However, a report from Glenn Greenwald published that same year demonstrated Clapper’s claim was false — the NSA was, in fact, collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers in the U.S. In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled the NSA’s mass surveillance of American’s phone records was illegal and potentially violated the Fourth Amendment.

Clapper apologized in a letter to Sen. Feinstein for his initial claim to Congress about the NSA’s surveillance programs, calling his response “clearly erroneous.”

Clapper also defended the FBI informant who spied on the Trump campaign for potential Russian interference, deeming it a “legitimate activity.” He allegedly lied about leaking the since-debunked Steele dossier to CNN, a House Intelligence Committee report revealed in June 2024.

Christopher Steele, a former British spy, alleged in the dossier that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 campaign. The dossier played an “essential role” in the FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, the Justice Department inspector general found in 2019.

Clapper was also among the 51 former officials to sign the Hunter Biden laptop letter.

Clapper was at the helm of the IC during one of the biggest scandals of the Obama administration — the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.

Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed by terrorists tied to al-Qaeda-linked groups. A report released by the House Armed Services Committee found that Libya was unstable prior to September 2012 and there were multiple threats posed to U.S. and Western interests in the area.

While Haines and Clapper were confirmed with bipartisan support, key senators are still wary about confirming Gabbard, despite repeated intelligence failures and dwindling public trust in the IC from supposedly more experienced spooks.

Former North Carolina senator and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Burr lauded Gabbard’s qualifications and railed against efforts to stop her nomination during the hearing. A more establishment Republican, Burr’s endorsement could be crucial in swaying hesitant senators to support her.

Burr isn’t exactly MAGA — he voted to convict Trump in the Senate in 2021 after the president was impeached in the House over his alleged role in the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. A former chair of the committee, his endorsement could sway hesitant Republican senators.

Gabbard was advanced by the Senate intelligence committee by a 9-8 vote Tuesday. Her floor vote is not yet scheduled.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence state reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: REPORT: Trump Suspending Security Clearances Of Intel Officials Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Deep State Officials Opposing Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination Have Close Ties To Defense Contractors, Censorship Tools

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Numerous officials that signed a letter opposing Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for Director of National Intelligence (DNI) are tied to groups targeting “election misinformation,” left-wing organizations, intelligence agencies and defense contractors.

Certain members of Foreign Policy for America, the group behind the letter, are linked to entities from Lockheed Martin to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Nearly 100 national security officials published a letter calling for a “thorough vetting” of Gabbard, and it was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and soon-to-be Majority Leader John Thune.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman criticized Gabbard’s views on the Russia-Ukraine war, former head of U.S. counterintelligence Joel Brenner blasted the nomination as “an insult to our intelligence agencies,” and former Senior CIA officer Melvin Gamble said her nomination “should worry any American who cares about keeping our country safe.”

But these very same people are part of the cohort of intelligence officials President-elect Donald Trump has signaled he wants to remove from power.

“This is a perfect example of why President Trump chose Tulsi Gabbard for this position,” Gabbard’s transition spokeswoman Alexa Henning told the Daily Caller.

“These unfounded attacks are from the same geniuses who have blood on their hands from decades of faulty ‘intelligence,’ including the non-existent weapons of mass destruction. These intel officials continue to use classification as a partisan weapon to smear and imply things about their political enemy without putting the facts out.”

Much of the group’s criticism levied at Gabbard centered around her 2017 meeting with then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Much of that criticism has been absent for Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who also met with Assad in 2007.

Sherman, for her part, previously criticized Trump for attempting to remove U.S. troops from Syria in 2018.

Asaad fled the country and escaped to Russia after the oppositional coalition Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew his regime last week. HTS is considered a terrorist organization by many of the world’s governments, including the United States. The group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was previously a leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate in the country.

Before she criticized Gabbard for speaking with a foreign dictator, Sherman negotiated with terrorists on behalf of the Obama administration. She was his Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and played a key role in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal. The Obama administration unfroze nearly $2 billion in assets for the Iranian regime in 2016.

Rose Gottemoeller, Joel Brenner, and Brian P. McKeon all served in the Obama administration and slammed Gabbard’s nomination. President Obama launched a CIA program in 2013 aimed at removing Assad, but it was ultimately a failure, and Trump ended the program in 2017.

Gabbard called Assad a “brutal dictator” in an interview with CNN in 2019, and has defended the meeting as a means of preventing America from being involved in foreign entanglements.

“He’s a brutal dictator. Just like Saddam Hussein. Just like Gaddafi in Libya,” Gabbard told CNN.

Some of the officials opposing Gabbard’s nomination are affiliated with organizations focused on combating “disinformation” in elections. Sherman currently serves as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. Former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, John Tien, also signed the letter and is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center.

The Belfer Center was involved in the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency’s (CISA) training seminars on election “disinformation,” according to a CISA “Disinformation in 2020” YouTube video. The CISA relied on the Center’s “Defending Digital Democracy Project” (D3P), which is led by former Army intelligence officer Eric Rosenbach, and Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney’s former campaign managers.

The Belfer Center also partnered with The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and The International Republican Institute (IRI) to tackle “misinformation in elections,” both of which are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to USA Spending.

USAID, which has been accused of being a CIA front, has multiple alumni who signed the letter, including Donald Sampler and Dr. Eric Rudenshiold. Additionally, the Executive Director of Foreign Policy for America, Andrew Albertson, worked in the USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).

Multiple Foreign Policy for America members are also tied to Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which recently held a discussion with never-Trump neoconservative Bill Kristol. In September 2024, it had an event on “free and fair elections” about “threats of foreign interference, disinformation, [and] political violence.”

Former Chief of Staff of the Commission Security and Cooperation in Europe, Alex T. Johnson, signed the letter and was senior policy advisor for Europe and Eurasia at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations until February 2019.

Aside from ties to left-wing organizations combating “disinformation,” some of the members are linked to defense contractors or groups funded by them.

The Woodrow Wilson Center received funding from Lockheed Martin in 2023. Ambassadors Anthony Stephen Harrington and Kenneth S. Yalowitz are both fellows and signed the letter opposing Gabbard’s nomination. John D. Butler, another official listed on the letter, was previously on the board of Lockheed Martin.

Rose Gottemoeller, who stated Gabbard has “serious red flags,” is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for National Peace’s nuclear program. Carnegie received funding from Boeing and Soros’s Open Society Foundations, according to its 2023 report.

Former Ambassador Kenneth S. Yalowitz and former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Annie Pforzheimer, who signed the letter, are both members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR is funded by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in addition to Blackrock, various banks, and tech giants like Google, according its list of corporate members.

Another official, former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian P. McKeon, is Senior Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Classified documents from then-Vice President Joe Biden were discovered at the Penn Biden Center office in 2022.

Last Monday, however, hundreds of veterans endorsed Gabbard’s nomination and lauded her military service.

“As a Member of Congress and as a civilian, Tulsi has been a stalwart advocate for veterans’ health concerning toxic exposures and cancer care as a result of our fellow veterans’ military service. Tulsi’s life exemplifies a rare blend of selflessness, courage, and leadership—qualities desperately needed to reform and strengthen our intelligence community,” their letter reads.

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Intelligence state reporter.

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National Security Adviser Nominee Tulsi Gabbard ‘Clearly’ Not Pro-Putin

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Brigitte Gabriel Has the Final Word

Fred Fleitz to Newsmax: Tulsi Gabbard ‘Clearly Not Pro-Putin’

Sandy Fitzgerald | Newsmax | 11-16-24

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz “should know better” than to accuse former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as national security adviser, of being a Russian asset, former national Security Council chief of staff and former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz told Newsmax on Saturday.

“I think the Democrats should just give it up,” Fleitz told Newsmax’s “The Count,” where he appeared with national security analyst Brigitte Gabriel.

“I mean, they were claiming Trump was a Russian asset forever. Tulsi Gabbard has made statements about ending the war in Ukraine that some on the left don’t like, but she’s clearly not pro-Putin.”

Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told MSNBC Friday that “there’s no question I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset,” reports The Hill.

Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, has come under fire for her comments on the war in Ukraine, including when she shared information suggesting that the United States had been involved in Ukraine’s development of biological weapons.

This led Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, at the time to accuse her of “parroting Russian propaganda” and said that her “treasonous lies may well cost lives.”

Fleitz acknowledged that Gabbard has made statements that supporting the war between Russia and Ukraine endlessly is “not in the interest of the United States.”

“She’s seeing this war as a war of attrition,” said Fleitz. “The Ukrainians are going to lose. She’s spoken the truth, the truth that the left doesn’t want to hear. Shame on Wasserman Schultz.”

Gabriel, meanwhile, said that Trump is already having an impact on foreign wars because other countries know his track record.

“He already has been president,” she said. “We have seen under his leadership when he was president, the world feared him. The world respected him. The world did not underestimate President Trump because they knew. Don’t you dare cross a line because you didn’t know what he’s going to do to you.”

World leaders are “already laying their cards on the table” and making calculations on Trump, Gabriel added.

“They know one thing. Trump does not mince words. Trump is very loyal to his friends. He will stand with Israel,” said Gabriel. “His greatest strength is the way he negotiates deals and that’s how he’s going to bring peace.”

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WATCH: President Trump’s MASSIVE Townhall with Tulsi Gabbard in Battleground Wisconsin

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That this is even remotely a contest speaks more to the downfall of America than merely Trump derangement syndrome. There is no comparison between the silly, incompetent placeholder and one of America’s greatest Presidents.

“Incredible sight to behold”: FIRED UP Wisconsin crowd starts a wave at Trump townhall in La Crosse.

Watch the whole thing:

Trump in La Crosse: Town hall touches on IVF, economy, more

By Jason Calvi and FOX6 News Digital Team, August 29, 2024:

Former President Donald Trump campaigned in battleground Wisconsin on Thursday night, participating in a town hall in La Crosse.
The Brief

LA CROSSE, Wis. – Former President Donald Trump campaigned in battleground Wisconsin on Thursday night, participating in a town hall in La Crosse.

Former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard moderated the town hall. She has backed Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee for president.

“The stakes could not be higher than they are right now,” Gabbard said.

The town hall’s questions touched on a number of issues, including the economy.

Former President Donald Trump participated in a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin as part of a battleground state tour on Thursday.

“I’ve noticed that everything has become more expensive,” Luke, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse junior, said. “I also would like to buy a home someday, and that just seems impossible now.”

“Your groceries are going to come tumbling down, and your interest rates are going to be tumbling down, and you’re going to go out and buy a beautiful house,” Trump replied.

Trump also announced plans for government-paid in vitro fertilization.

“It is a pretty difficult process. It is very, very expensive,” Gabbard said of her own experience.

“The government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great,” said Trump.

Democrats reacted to Trump’s pitch for free IVF. A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign accused the former president of lying.

Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance delivered remarks on the economy, inflation and energy when he visited De Pere on Wednesday night.

The latest Emerson College poll of Wisconsin found Trump with a 1% lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

La Crosse is part of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District – a swing area of a swing state. Trump won it in 2016 and 2020; those same years, voters reelected longtime U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, a Democrat. That changed in 2022 when Kind retired and Republican Derrick Van Orden narrowly won the seat. Van Orden will face Democrat Rebecca Cooke on the November ballot.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump Adds RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard To His Transition Team

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Former President Donald Trump has added former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be part of his transition team after they both recently endorsed his bid for the presidency.

“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team. We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team was we work to restore America’s greatness,” Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller.

Kennedy, who was running as an Independent, suspended his campaign Friday and endorsed Trump. Just days after, Gabbard, who has reportedly been helping Trump with debate preparation, also endorsed Trump, saying Monday that she believes Trump is the best person to keep us out of wars.

“He keeps us in his heart in the decisions that he makes. We saw this through his first term in the presidency, when he not only didn’t start any new wars, he took action to deescalate and prevent wars,” Gabbard said.

The former congresswoman compared Trump’s record on foreign conflict to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, arguing that their administration had brought the country closer to war. She added that she was “confident” Trump would “do the work to walk us back from the brink of war.”

Kennedy first told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson about being asked to help with Trump’s transition team, saying they were discussing it.

“I’m going to work to get him elected,” Kennedy said to Carlson. “And I’m working with the campaign. We’re working on policy issues together. I’ve been asked to go onto the transition team and to help pick the people who will be running the government.”

WATCH: 

Also serving on Trump’s transition team are his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the former administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon, businessman Howard Lutnick and Ohio Republican Sen. and Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

“The 2024 GOP Platform to Make America Great Again is a forward-looking agenda that will deliver safety, prosperity and freedom for the American people. My administration will deliver on these bold promises,” Trump said in a statement. “We will restore strength, competence and common sense to the Oval Office. I have absolute confidence the Trump-Vance Administration will be ready to govern effectively on Day One.”

A source close to Trump told the Daily Caller that Kennedy will “definitely be on the campaign trail and doing media” ahead of the election.

AUTHOR

Henry Rodgers

Chief national correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.