Gabbard Defends Trump's Iran Strikes

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard defended President Donald Trump’s decision to launch missile strikes against Iran during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. She repeatedly stated that only the president can determine what constitutes an imminent threat, emphasizing that it is not the intelligence community's role to make this determination.

Gabbard told lawmakers, 'The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,' according to HuffPost. She added that it is the president's responsibility to decide based on the information he receives. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) pushed back, calling her statement 'false' and emphasizing the committee's responsibility to evaluate threats.

The hearing comes a day after Joe Kent, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in protest over Trump’s decision to attack Iran. In his resignation letter, Kent stated that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States and criticized Israel's influence on U.S. policy. Gabbard defended Trump’s actions on social media, saying he took action based on the conclusion that Iran posed an imminent threat.

According to The Guardian, Gabbard told the committee that US strikes on Iran had been a strategic success but did not mention adversary attempts to influence American elections in her assessment. Senator Mark Warner noted this omission, suggesting it indicated political interference rather than a disappearance of the threat. Gabbard also faced questions about her presence during an FBI seizure of 2020 election documentation in Fulton County.

Gabbard affirmed that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was 'obliterated' in the June strikes, as reported by UPI. She stated that while the Iranian regime appears to be intact but largely degraded, it and its proxies remain capable of attacking U.S. and allied interests in the Middle East. The intelligence community assesses that if a hostile regime survives, it will seek to begin a years-long effort to rebuild its missile and UAV forces.

Gabbard’s past opposition to military action in Iran has drawn scrutiny, particularly her 2019 tweet urging Trump not to go to war with Iran. Despite this history, she has aligned herself with the administration's current stance. The hearing highlighted tensions between Gabbard and Democratic senators over the justification for the strikes and the role of the intelligence community in assessing threats.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified on Wednesday that he did not agree with Kent. 'I think Iran has been a constant threat to the United States for an extended period of time, and posed an immediate threat at this time,' he said according to BBC. Gabbard said US and Israeli strikes in the Middle East had 'largely destroyed' Iran's military capabilities.

The intelligence community had a 'longstanding assessment' that Iran 'would likely hold the Strait of Hormuz,' Gabbard noted. She said the US defence department took 'pre-emptive planning measures' as a result of that report according to BBC.