Source: Syria is now free from Assad. And this Trump nominee has some explaining to do. | Opinion
Here’s a remarkable split-screen moment in American politics, fraught with terrible timing.
Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a one-time Democratic candidate for president turned ardent supporter of Donald Trump, is meeting with U.S. senators this week to discuss his nomination for her to be the next director of national intelligence.
Six thousand miles away, in Syria, people there are rushing to prisons to search for friends and relatives unjustly jailed and tortured by the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad, who fled that country over the weekend for the safety of Russian asylum after his family’s half-century reign of oppression came to a sudden, startling demise.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
Gabbard has some explaining to do about her history of going to bat for Assad, including the strong doubts she expressed in April 2017 after he was accused of using banned chemical weapons against his own people.
That flew in the face of American intelligence analysis at the time. Trump, then president, insisted “there can be no dispute” in the conclusion that Assad’s regime had gassed its own people.
Trump, interviewed Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” was asked if he had concerns about a pair of secret meetings Gabbard had with Assad in Syria in 2017. Trump shrugged it off as no big deal, pivoting to old grievances about the 2016 and 2020 elections in a transparent bid to shift the subject.
Revolution Daily
MSNBC
The Associated PressGabbard has at times been critical of Assad. And this week she said her views were shaped by her military service and “the threat of Islamist terrorism.”
Even so, that doesn’t come close to explaining why Gabbard felt the need to secretly visit Assad in 2017. She should have to spell that out as the horrors of his regime come into focus after his exit.
The question that Tulsi Gabbard should be asked during confirmation
Wa’el Alzayat, who leads the Muslim American voter engagement group Emgage, has a question for Gabbard. Syria is still unstable, and he sees “legitimate” concerns for what comes next here. So he wants to know if Gabbard would like that country “to go back to Assad.”
“And if the answer is yes, that’s very troubling,” Alzayat said. “And if the answer is no, then let’s move on and let’s help Syria to make sure that its people get this transition right.”
I wondered if Gabbard will face that question if her nomination gets a Senate hearing.
“We will make sure that she’s asked,” Alzayat said.
More than one thing can be true about Syria at the same time.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of the groups that chased Assad from power, has a record of serving with terrorist organizations that targeted Americans. He was imprisoned by the U.S. military for a time in Iraq and still has a $10 million bounty on his head. For all his rebranding efforts as a Syrian nationalist, that’s all still very troubling.
Nevertheless, none of that changes the terrible pain and strife Assad imposed on his people, with help from Russia and Iran, in a civil war that stretched for 13 years.
Gabbard’s history of distrust for agencies she now wants to run
Gabbard has a history of distrusting American intelligence agencies, so it is on-brand for Trump to try to have her lead them. Trump’s nominee for secretary of Defense, former Fox News talking head Pete Hegseth, has an open animosity toward the Pentagon, along with a troubled history that includes an accusation of sexual assault.
NBC News on Tuesday reported that Trump is keeping Hegseth’s scandal-snagged nomination moving forward in part to keep scrutiny off of Gabbard and her record, a claim Trump’s transition team denied to NBC News.
And scrutiny is coming for Gabbard.
Nearly 100 former officials with experience in intelligence and national security sent a letter last week to U.S. Sen. John Thune, the new Republican majority leader in the Senate, and U.S. Sen Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, calling for a closed-door hearing on Gabbard’s record, suggesting that her “past actions call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the President, Congress and to the entire national security apparatus.
Trump’s team responded Monday, touting a letter from more than 250 military veterans, along with statements from 13 Republican current or soon-to-be senators, all singing Gabbard’s praises.
USA TODAYGabbard, who represented a district in Hawaii for four terms in Congress, is still a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
Gabbard has the support of Russian propaganda outlets
It’s not just Assad. Like Trump, Gabbard seems to be captivated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the feeling is apparently mutual.
Russia’s state-controlled media outlets, like RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik International, have been promoting Gabbard’s nomination through their accounts on X, the social media platform now deeply devoted to disinformation.
Curious fan club, no? State media for a major geopolitical adversary is firmly in support of the person who would supervise American intelligence operations. Why would they be rooting for her?
Three former Gabbard aides told ABC News last week that their former boss eagerly consumed and shared Russian propaganda as news, including reports from RT. So the admiration flows both ways.
Which, of course, raises more questions for Gabbard about her view of the world, her distrust for American institutions, her apparent reliance on foreign propaganda and her penchant for dictators.
Will we get answers? I have my doubts.
Gabbard is likely to deploy the Trump playbook here, to assail every question as some unjust political attack, to dismiss every accurate quotation of her past statements as some distorted smear on her history.
Senators should ask anyway. They should demand explanations. And they should pick apart in public any attempt to dodge responsibility for her past positions.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Syria is now free from Assad. And this Trump nominee has some explaining to do. | Opinion
