Democrats, Media Push Lies About Tulsi Gabbard Ahead of Her Confirmation Hearing — Here Are the Facts

Director of National Intelligence Nominee Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard will testify before the Senate this Thursday, and Democrats and their allies in the media have been publishing lie after lie about her record.

Here are the lies and the facts:

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard is an Assad sympathizer.

Fact: Gabbard’s skepticism of U.S. military involvement in Syria has been falsely misrepresented as support for Assad — who she has criticized multiple times.

Gabbard, an Iraq War combat veteran, has long opposed U.S. military involvement in regime-change wars.

In the wake of the Arab spring, Syrian opposition forces and their allies in the U.S. government pressed for the Obama administration to become more deeply engaged in the Syrian civil war against then-dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Gabbard questioned the wisdom of U.S. military involvement, as well as the argument for becoming more involved — which at the time was that Assad was using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians and the U.S. needed to intervene.

She traveled to Syria in 2017 on a fact-finding mission, which was cleared by the House Ethics Committee before and after the trip, and to meet with Assad. After the trip, she briefed the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and met with top Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Steny Hoyer (MD).

The trip was hardly unique for a lawmaker. In 2005, then-Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) met with Assad for two hours during a trip to the Middle East, and in 2007, then-House Speaker Pelosi met with Assad in Syria and urge him to engage in peace talks with Israel.

After she returned, she remained skeptical of U.S. military involvement. “Let the Syrian people themselves determine their future, not the United States, not some foreign country,” she said.

She has since been accused of being an Assad sympathizer — despite her criticizing Assad on multiple occasions.

In a 2019 interview, when asked whether she thinks Assad is a “good person,” Gabbard responded, “No, I don’t.”

Gabbard also told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, “He’s a brutal dictator. Just like Saddam Hussein. Just like Gaddhafi in Libya.”

She has also called him an “adversary.”

In 2019, she said, “It is important that we be willing to meet with adversaries or potential adversaries, not just our friends, if we are serious about the pursuit of peace.”

And she has said she does believe that Assad used chemical weapons in Syria.

In 2020, when Task & Purpose, a left-leaning military news website, asked Gabbard if she believed Assad used chemical weapons against his own people, she responded, “Yes.”

Her concerns with involvement in Syria have borne out with the recent overthrow of Assad in Syria.

In 2017, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that if he were overthrown, al Qaeda or another terrorist group would take over Syria.

Currently, Syria’s leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa — previously Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — is the commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was previously Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda that was designated a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council.

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard is “an isolationist” or “sympathetic” to dictators.

Fact: Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard and has sworn an oath to the defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic over a dozen times.

Gabbard is not an isolationist, but believes in prudent use of the U.S. military — a view shaped by her multiple combat deployments, and especially after claims that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — used to justify U.S. military intervention in Iraq — did not bear out.

In 2019, she said:

The reason that I’m so outspoken on this issue of ending these wasteful regime-change wars is because I have seen firsthand this high human cost of war and the impact that it has on my fellow brothers and sisters in uniform. I will do anything and everything that I possibly can to stop sending our men and women in uniform into harm’s way, fighting in these wasteful, counterproductive wars.

Trump himself campaigned in 2015 on stopping endless wars, famously becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to criticize U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard is soft on Iran.

Fact: In 2013, Gabbard co-sponsored the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which aimed to impose harsher sanctions on Iran.

Gabbard was described as “a vocal critic” of the Iran nuclear deal, although she did eventually vote for a 2015 resolution in support of it. Regarding her support, she said it came down to preventing war with Iran.

However, she has remained a critic of the deal, saying in 2017, “The Iran nuclear deal was a disaster for Israel and a disaster for the world. It allowed Iran to continue its path toward obtaining nuclear weapons and gave them billions of dollars that they are using to fund terrorism.”

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset.

Fact: Gabbard has criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, Gabbard called for “meaningful American military assistance for Ukrainian forces” and called for “stiffer, more painful economic sanctions for Russia.”

She stated: “The consequences of standing idly by while Russia continues to degrade the territorial integrity of Ukraine are clear. We have to act in a way that takes seriously the threat of Russian aggression against its peaceful, sovereign neighbor.”

In 2019, when she was asked whether she believes Putin is a U.S. adversary, she responded, “Yes.”

In 2022, she criticized Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying:

President Putin, not only is your brutal attack on Ukraine reprehensible, it has been a huge geopolitical error which has already cost Russia dearly. Those costs will get higher every day you remain in Ukraine. So it is in the best interest of the Russian people…and the people of Ukraine, that you pull your forces out now. It is still not too late to salvage the kinship felt between the Russian and Ukrainian people, as expressed in this video clip from a Ukrainian soldier.

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard pushed Russian propaganda on U.S.-funded biolabs.

Fact: Gabbard stated factually there were U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine — which is public information and has been also discussed and confirmed by U.S. government officials.

Gabbard said in a post after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: “There are 25+ US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world. We must take action now to prevent disaster. US/Russia/Ukraine/NATO/UN/EU must implement a ceasefire now around these labs until they’re secured & pathogens destroyed.”

Just five days before Gabbard’s video, then-U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. was concerned about the biolabs, “Ukraine has biological research facilities, which, in fact, we are now quite concerned…Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of. So we are working with the Ukrainians on how they can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach.”

In addition, a November 14, 2024, Wall Street Journal article stated that the U.S. was funding the bio-labs. It said: “U.S. funding of Ukrainian biological labs has focused on efforts to improve security and prevent the escape of pathogens.”

A March 20, 2022, Wall Street Journal article also confirmed that the U.S.-funded labs were working with “dangerous biological materials”:

On his first official visit abroad, the new senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was taken to a facility in Ukraine where the U.S. helped scientists working with dangerous biological materials. But rather than produce biological weapons, U.S. officials in that ramshackle building were trying to prevent lethal pathogens from falling into the hands of terrorists.

“I removed a tray of glass vials containing Bacillus anthracis, which is the bacterium that causes the anthrax,” recalls Andrew Weber, the Pentagon official who was in charge of the U.S.-funded program that worked with the Ukrainian government. Mr. Weber said he showed the tray “to a very concerned-looking young senator.”

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine website also discusses upgrading laboratories for the Ministry of Health and the State Food Safety and Consumer Protection Service of Ukraine. In 2019, the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) constructed two laboratories for the latter agency, one in Kyiv and one in Odesa.

FACT: Gabbard has been an ardent supporter the U.S. being a “strong ally of Israel.”

Gabbard voted in favor of House Resolution 246, opposing the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel, and has criticized pro-Palestine protesters, calling them “puppets” of a “radical Islamist organization.

She called the movement “anti-Semitic” and counterproductive to the peace process, stating, “The BDS movement does nothing to advance peace or the cause of Palestinian rights; it is a campaign to delegitimize Israel.”
She also posted on X: “I oppose the BDS movement, which seeks to delegitimize Israel and promote policies that would harm the people of both Israel and Palestine. We must support efforts for peace, not destruction.”

As far back as 2014, Gabbard said:  “Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism and Hamas, who continue to attack Israel with rockets aimed at civilians… I strongly support Israel’s right to defend its citizens and its territory.”

In a 2018 interview with CNN, she stated, “I strongly believe that Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies in the Middle East, and we need to support Israel in its fight against terrorism and extremism.”
She has also opposed a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, stating that “as long as Hamas is in power, the people of Israel will not be secure and cannot live in peace.”

In 2019, she posted on X: “The U.S.-Israel alliance is critical for our shared security interests and values. We must stand
with Israel in the face of threats from terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

During the 2020 Democrat debate, Gabbard said, “I believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, and I believe that we need to support their right to defend themselves against terrorist attacks.”

In November 2023, Gabbard criticized President Biden and Vice President Harris for not joining the March for Israel.

Lie: Tulsi Gabbard is unqualified for DNI.

Fact: Gabbard has extensive national security experience, both in uniform and outside of it.

Gabbard has served in the Army Reserves for over two decades and deployed to multiple war zones. She also served on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees for eight years.

Lie: Tulsi is a member of the Science of Identify Foundation that has anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim stances.

FACT: Gabbard is not a member of the Science of Identity Foundation.

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on ”X”, Truth Social, or on Facebook.