Tulsi Gabbard
Gabbard served on the House Armed Services Committee for all four terms in Congress and introduced several bills related to veteran issues, including the "Helping Heroes Fly Act".[37] In July 2004, she was deployed for a 12-month tour in Iraq, serving as a specialist with the Medical Company, 29th Support Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Hawaii Army National Guard.[56] On July 4, 2021, Gabbard was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel,[57][58] while she was deployed to the Horn of Africa working as a civil affairs officer in support of a special operations mission.[148] The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald and the Washington Examiner reported that Gabbard privately wrote to Wasserman Schultz, accusing her of violating the DNC's duty of neutrality by favoring Hillary Clinton.[149][150] Gabbard resigned as DNC vice chair on February 28, 2016, in order to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders's candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States.[180] Ball noted, "Her interaction with Assad is weaponized to undercut everything else Tulsi has to say about the American warfighting machine," pointing out that critics often have "a bit of a blind spot about their own foreign policy positions.[186] Initial news stories had mistakenly also reported Clinton claimed Russia was "grooming" Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate, who would help president Donald Trump win reelection via a spoiler effect.He saw the Clinton-Gabbard feud as part of "a long campaign of vilification against critics of the Russia consensus" by Clinton and "her allies in the media (which very much include certain former high-ranking members of the US intelligence community)".[209] In July 2020, the family of Vanessa Guillén, a U.S. Army soldier and victim of military sexual harassment who was found murdered after previously being reported missing, met with Gabbard.[211] In August 2020, Gabbard and Scott Miscovich held a press conference lauding Jennifer Smith, the state's epidemiological specialist who blew the whistle regarding the Hawaii Department of Health's lack of contact tracers to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.[217] She also made several appearances on Fox News programs since leaving Congress, where she criticized figures such as House speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. representative Adam Schiff, calling the latter a "domestic terrorist" for what she deemed as his attempt to "undermin[e] our constitution by trying to take away our civil liberties and rights" in the aftermath of the 2021 storming of the U.S.[223] On October 11, 2022, Gabbard announced on Twitter that she was leaving the Democratic Party, accusing its leadership of "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, [being] hostile to people of faith and spirituality, and dragging us closer to nuclear war".[236] The next day, she was named as an honorary co-chair of his presidential transition team, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., joining Trump's sons and the Republican vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance.[258] Gabbard faced criticism from several Democratic politicians, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jason Crow, Tammy Duckworth, and Elizabeth Warren, who labeled her a "likely Russian asset" and "compromised" due to her statements perceived as sympathetic to Russia.[271] Victoria Coates, ex-Trump deputy national security adviser, suggests recent global events like the Taliban's rise, Hamas attacks, and Assad's fall indicate the need for new intelligence leadership, advocating for an outsider to address systemic issues.[277] On December 9, 2024, more than 250 veterans, including Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who is set to helm the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller, and political commentator Jack Posobiec, signed an open letter supporting endorsing Gabbard for the DNI position, praising her as "a warrior whose vote cannot be bought" and highlighting her selflessness, courage, and leadership.[295][296] Gabbard has been outspoken against a "broken criminal justice system" that puts "people in prison for smoking marijuana" while allowing pharmaceutical corporations responsible for "opioid-related deaths of thousands to walk away scot-free with their coffers full".[301] In June 2020, Gabbard introduced an amendment to the House version of the 2021 NDAA to allow members of Armed Services to use products containing CBD and other hemp derivatives.[304] At that time, Gabbard also called for halting the visa waiver program after mass numbers of Syrian immigrants entered Germany, until the threat of terrorist attacks was resolved.[309] Gabbard successfully passed an amendment to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Department of Energy to reexamine the safety of the Runit Dome, a leaking Cold War era nuclear waste site in the Marshall Islands.[314] She has since advocated for a two-tier universal health care plan that she calls "Single Payer Plus", loosely modeled after Australia's system and allowing for both supplementary and duplicative private insurance.[339][340] After criticism from Democrats over her past anti-gay remarks, she was defended by conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and openly gay representative Sean Patrick Maloney.[347] In her foreign policy positions, Gabbard has taken a strong stand against Islamic extremism in the Middle East and supported tough actions against terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.[356] In January 2017, Gabbard went on a one-week "fact-finding mission" to Syria and Lebanon, during which she met various political and religious leaders from both countries[d] – and also had two unplanned meetings with then-Syrian-president Bashar al-Assad.[387] In a statement she said "A successful prosecution of Assad (at the International Criminal Court) will require collection of evidence from the scene of the incident, and I support the United Nation's efforts in this regard.She expressed skepticism about the motives behind not resolving the issue, blaming "warmongers on both sides in Washington" and suggesting the U.S. might want Russia to invade in order to impose "draconian sanctions" and cement a new Cold War.[258] On March 9, 2022, Tucker Carlson, after airing a video of the State Department's Victoria Nuland saying "[W]e are now quite concerned Russian troops … may be seeking to gain control of [Ukraine's biological research facilities], 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”,[410] asked Gabbard “How concerned are you that … there are unsecured bio agents, dangerous bio agents in Ukraine?” Gabbard responded: "I'm extremely concerned…."[433] On August 30, 2024, Dana Milbank wrote in a Washington Post op-ed: "Gabbard endorsed Russian propaganda in falsely claiming the United States was funding biological laboratories in Ukraine that could spread dangerous pathogens.She also stated her belief that the trade war has made it more difficult to secure Chinese support over a nuclear deal with North Korea; she said America should work with China on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.[494] On September 30, 2018, Gabbard received the Ho'ola Na Pua Advocacy Award for "her dedication to serving and empowering human trafficking survivors in Hawaii" at their annual Pearl Gala.
Director of National IntelligenceDonald TrumpAvril HainesU.S. House of RepresentativesHawaiiMazie HironoKai KaheleDemocratic National CommitteeDebbie Wasserman SchultzMike HondaGrace MengHonolulu City CouncilRod TamCarol FukunagaHawaii House of RepresentativesRida CabanillaLeloaloa, American SamoaRepublicanDemocraticIndependentMike GabbardCaroline Sinavaiana-GabbardLeeward Community CollegeHawaii Pacific UniversityUnited States ArmyU.S. Army ReserveLieutenant Colonel440th Civil Affairs BattalionIraq WarMeritorious Service MedalArmy Commendation MedalArmy Achievement MedalArmy Good Conduct MedalCombat Medical BadgeArmenian GenocidePolitical positionsElectoral history2020 presidential campaignPrimariesHawaii's 2nd districtStop Arming Terrorists ActNo More Presidential Wars ActU.S. representativeHawaii's 2nd congressional districtcandidate2020 Democratic presidential primariesDemocratic PartyRepublican PartyPresident-electsecond termspecialistofficer training programAlabama Military AcademyKuwaitArmy Military PoliceHawaii Army National GuardIslamic terrorismMiddle EastU.S. military intervention in the Syrian civil warObama administrationIslamic extremismSyrian presidentBashar al-AssadHouse Armed Services CommitteeBernie Sanders2016 Democratic presidential nominationJoe BidenSamoan AmericanCongressconservativeLGBTQ rights2024 United States presidential electionhighest-rankingPacific Islander AmericanRussian invasion of UkraineLeloaloaMaʻopūtasi CountyAmerican SamoaTutuilaTulasiHinduismEuropeanSamoanIndianaMichiganhome schooledBhagavad GitaSeptember 11 attackspolitical action committeemartial artsHawaii state legislature29th Infantry Brigade Combat TeamLogistical Support Area AnacondaOfficer Candidate Schoolsecond lieutenantKuwait National GuardGerman Armed Forces Badge for Military ProficiencycaptainNational Memorial Cemetery of the PacificUnited States Army ReserveUnited States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations CommandArmy ReserveHorn of Africaspecial operationsTulsa, OklahomaElectoral history of Tulsi GabbardredistrictingArmy National Guardmayor of HonoluluAmerican Civil Liberties Union113th CongressUnited States SenateMufi HannemannHonolulu Star-Advertiser2012 Democratic National ConventionCharlotte, North CarolinaNancy PelosiKawika CrowleySamoan-AmericanDaniel InouyeDemocratic Party of HawaiiTransportation Security AdministrationBarack ObamaMilitary Justice Improvement ActNational Guard Association of the United StatesLibertarian