Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is scoring some backup from one of her top congressional allies, who told the Washington Reporter that she “has been doing an incredible job not only keeping the American people safe, but also executing President Trump’s peace through strength foreign policy agenda.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.) told the Reporter that Gabbard’s work is indispensable at a time when the DNI is under fire for reports that the Trump administration undertook much of the planning to capture Venezuela’s illegitimate dictator, Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Schmitt is the latest high-ranking Republican to reiterate support for Gabbard; allies in the broader Trump orbit have joined Schmitt in rallying behind her.
Vice President JD Vance clarified that reports that both he and Gabbard were intentionally excluded from Trump’s planning to capture Maduro are fake news.
“I’ve heard a couple of things, one that I was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation,” Vance clarified earlier this week. “That’s false. And another that Tulsi was kept out of the planning for Venezuela operations. That’s completely false. Look, we’re all part of the same team, and one of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we kept it very tight to the senior Cabinet level officials and related officials in our government, and we kept this operation secret for very long time. I’m very proud of that. I think it suggests suggested that the team works very well together.”
The White House’s communications director, Steven Cheung, also reiterated that Trump himself “has full confidence in DNI Gabbard and she’s doing a fantastic job.”
“President Trump’s Peace through Strength foreign policy is a tried-and-true approach that keeps America safe and deters global threats,” Cheung noted. “Efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work.”
