(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and veteran, said she has concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be director of national intelligence.
Duckworth, D-Schaumburg, said Gabbard was “compromised” during a CNN appearance. Duckworth referenced Gabbard’s 2017 trip to Syria, where she met with then-Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“I think by going to Syria and basically backing a brutal dictator there, Russian controlled media called her a Russian asset,” said Duckworth. “So I do think that we have a real deep concern whether or not she’s a compromised person. The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. So my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check.”
Illinois state Rep. David Friess, also a veteran, said Gabbard went on a fact-finding mission.
“It’s really sad [Duckworth calling Gabbard ‘compromised’] because based on my understanding, she had a meeting with Assad, who is aligned with the Russians, but she was on what I would consider a fact-finding mission, talking to him, trying to get an understanding of what’s going on in the country because there were rebels that were trying to overthrow him, which they just succeeded this past weekend,” said Friess. “All Tulsi Gabbard was doing was trying to get the facts, and get a different perspective of what was going on in Syria.”
Islamist rebel forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and U.K., captured parts of Syria and ultimately Assad resigned and left the country on a flight to Russia over the weekend.
Gabbard was criticized online after Assad’s regime fell.
Former Illinois Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote on social media, “Wonder if Tulsi Gabbard will offer Assad safe harbor at her house?”
“They are great friends,” Kinzinger wrote.
Friess said people are speaking from a place of “ignorance.”
“They don’t have all the facts. They don’t have all the information and they just blurt something out, maybe just to make headlines because they know Tulsi Gabbard is a Trump nominee,” said Friess. “Everybody should be excited because she’s a former Democrat. But because Tulsi Gabbard doesn’t align with everybody on a particular issue, now she’s a Russian asset. No, that doesn’t make sense to me.”
Despite assurances, fears persist among Syrian Christians about the Syrian Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams taking over. Christian Solidarity International said in a statement HTS’s ideology gives religious minorities in Aleppo serious reason to doubt these promises.
Friess said Gabbard, as a member of the military and former member of Congress, should have received answers as to why she was placed on a government watch list for overseas travel and foreign connections.
“She goes on this, it wasn’t a no fly list, but it was like an extra scrutiny list. So if she was flying, there was an air marshal on that flight to monitor her. She always had to go through additional security. We show our ID with our boarding pass and we go through security, but she always got extra scrutiny when she was flying,” said Friess. “She shouldn’t have, probably, been on the list. But if she was, she should have been able to find out ‘what list am I on and why am I on this list?’”
Trump said on social media the U.S. military should stay out of Syria. The Biden administration said it had no intention of intervening, but called the fall of Assad a “moment of historic opportunity.”
