Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, is “likely a Russian asset.”
“There is no question in my mind that she is someone who is likely to be a Russian agent,” Wasserman Schultz told MSNBC on Friday.
The Hill has reached out to Gabbard's press team for comment.
Wasserman Schultz's comments come as President Trump faces backlash over some of his cabinet appointments, including agreeing to Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
The role marks a major shift for the former Democrat, who has previously been accused of promoting the Russia story. Gabbard has expressed beliefs that disagree with the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly regarding Russia and Ukraine.
Gabbard shared material suggesting that the United States was involved in Ukraine's biological weapons development. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said at the time that she was “parroting Russian propaganda” and that “treasonous lies can cost lives.”
In 2022, he criticized the Biden administration for failing to address Russian concerns during the invasion of Ukraine.
“This war and suffering could have been easily avoided if the Biden administration/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s membership in NATO. We are approaching the border,” she wrote to X at the time. .
In a 2019 interview, Hillary Clinton referenced Russian media support related to Gabbard, calling the former congresswoman “the favorite of the Russians.”
In 2017, Gabbard met with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader accused of using chemical weapons against his own people during the civil war. The meeting sparked anger among his colleagues in Congress.
During her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Gabbard insisted that Assad was not an enemy of the United States and refused to call him a war criminal.
