Beginning final summer season, former Consultant Tulsi Gabbard publicly berated the Biden administration, claiming that she was positioned on what she referred to as “a domestic terror watch list” as punishment for essential feedback she had made about Vice President Kamala Harris.
The fact was extra sophisticated. A federal company answerable for defending flights did briefly topic her to particular scrutiny — however not for the rationale she asserted, in response to two senior U.S. officers briefed on the matter. Reasonably, they mentioned, the extra safety measures have been triggered by an occasion she attended on the Vatican that was organized by a European businessman who appeared on an F.B.I. watch record.
There isn’t a indication that Ms. Gabbard, now President Trump’s nominee to steer the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence, did something fallacious by making the journey. And it’s not clear why the F.B.I. had positioned the European businessman on the watch record or whether or not he was positioned on it by mistake.
However the journey to Italy, mixed with a 2017 go to that Ms. Gabbard made to Syria and Lebanon, has raised questions concerning the extent to which Mr. Trump’s nominee to function the nation’s prime intelligence official adequately weighed the implications of her overseas travels and associations.
Ms. Gabbard has lengthy been a contrarian voice, staking out positions on Syria and Russia at odds with the Washington overseas coverage institution. Her public remarks typically have made her a darling of Russia’s huge state media equipment. The day after Russia started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she blamed america and NATO for scary the conflict by ignoring Russia’s safety considerations.
Whereas in Syria in 2017, Ms. Gabbard, who on the time was representing Hawaii within the Home as a Democrat, met with President Bashar al-Assad, an authoritarian chief backed by Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah till December, when insurgent teams seized the Syrian capital.
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