Thursday was definitely an overwhelming day of news, between the midair collision at Ronald Reagan International Airport and the confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the secretary of Health and Human Services, Kash Patel for FBI director, and Tulsi Gabbard for director of Nation Intelligence, there was a lot going on.
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All three of the confirmation hearings got heated at times, particularly at RFK Jr.’s, where Bernie Sanders lost it after Kennedy accused him of corruption for accepting Big Pharma money.
Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing was just as riveting, drawing intense scrutiny. One particularly tense exchange was with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). It was a pivotal moment for her as she worked to cement her position amid a wave of skepticism from both sides of the aisle.
Gabbard opened her testimony with a powerful rebuke of the intelligence community’s politicization, declaring, “This must end.” She cast her concerns not merely as personal grievances over being targeted but as a broader warning that such weaponization endangers the integrity and effectiveness of American intelligence operations.
Unfortunately, Democrats are stuck in their ways and have clung to the narrative that she’s a puppet for Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.
“I want to warn the American people who are watching at home: You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,” Gabbard said.
“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States, accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.”
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Related: WATCH: Bernie Sanders Goes Berserk As RFK Jr. Calls Out His Corruption to His Face
“The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed,” she concluded.
Things got contentious when Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) challenged Gabbard on her past claims that the Obama administration had provided aid to al-Qaeda in Syria. In an effort to dismiss her assertions as mere repetition of Russian propaganda, Kelly asked why she made such statements. Gabbard didn’t shy away from the confrontation; instead, she confidently replied, “Because it’s true,” backing her claim with historical context about “Operation Timber Sycamore,” a covert program aimed at overthrowing Bashar al-Assad’s regime that ended during Trump’s first term.
Tulsi Gabbard just nuked Mark Kelly back into space. pic.twitter.com/wpDrDU2lh0
— Murray 🇺🇸 (@Rothbard1776) January 30, 2025
She skillfully articulated the devastating unintended consequences of such U.S. interventions, explaining how these actions inadvertently bolstered extremist factions like al-Qaeda. “I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime, but today we have an Islamist extremist in charge of Syria—someone who danced in the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack, who ruled over Idlib with an Islamist extremist governance, and who has already begun to persecute, kill, and arrest religious minorities, including Christians in Syria,” she said. “Why that should be acceptable to anyone is beyond me.”
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Tulsi Gabbard with an “I told you so” on the fall of the Assad Regime in Syria:
“I shed no tears for the fall of the Assad regime, but today we have an Islamist extremist who’s now in charge of Syria…who danced on the streets to celebrate the 9/11 attack…” pic.twitter.com/eXINB39zRx
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 30, 2025
Kelly’s response was typical of Democrats who rely on labeling dissenting voices as unpatriotic. Gabbard pressed back against this trend, challenging the notion that criticism of official narratives constitutes a conspiracy theory or allegiance to an enemy nation.
Despite her determined stance, Gabbard’s path forward remains shaky. According to reports, potentially seven Republicans are still not going to vote for her.
