The fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad instantly triggered dialog about Tulsi Gabbard, the previous Democratic congressman and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence — and never simply amongst on a regular basis residents. Adam Kinzinger, the previous Republican congressman, joked on X/Twitter as information broke that Gabbard may supply the deposed Syrian president “safe harbor” in her residence.
Gabbard met with the Syrian dictator in 2017, and she or he did so in her capability as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In one notably stunning second, The Independent reported final month that when she met with younger women from Syria who had survived airstrikes from Assad’s army, she allegedly requested them how they knew it was Assad who bombed them. It was a query so insulting that the translator current stated he refused to translate it.
During her time in Congress, Gabbard additionally praised Vladimir Putin for bombing Isis in Syria, whereas the Obama administration wouldn’t. She additionally unfold the conspiratorial concept that “biolabs” funded by the United States internationally — which don’t exist — may unleash “dangerous pathogens.”
But regardless of all this, most Republican senators didn’t appear bothered by Gabbard’s previous when The Independent requested them about it this week.
Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma pressured that Gabbard had met not solely with Assad but in addition opposition leaders previously.
“I don’t agree with that trip. I do understand what she was trying to accomplish, trying to be able to research,” Lankford, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, instructed The Independent. “She also is pretty clear that she doesn’t like Assad.”
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a army hawk who has since come to embrace Trump, additionally added that he was not too apprehensive about Gabbard after the autumn of Assad.
“I’m concerned that we come up with a rational policy to prevent Isis from coming back,” Graham instructed The Independent.
“There are lots of times in which members of Congress have met with foreign leaders,” stated Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. “That part, as I shared with her, does not concern me. So I look forward to working with her as she prepares for the open and closed hearings.”
Senator Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican Senator, instructed The Independent: “I think if she can tell me she’s going to cooperate with us on Oversight and make things transparent, it’d be difficult for me not to vote for her. But I never make up a judgment on who I’m voting for till after the hearing.”
But Senator Susan Collins instructed The Independent she apprehensive about a few of Gabbard’s previous statements.
“I do not know her at all, so I need to do more research on her visit to Assad, her comments about Putin, Russia,” she stated. “All of those are issues that need to be further dealt with.”
Clearly, Republicans have largely shifted from being anxious about nominating a few of Trump’s extra controversial picks to principally falling in line.
Democrats, for his or her half, have made their issues about Gabbard’s previous work in Syria well-known. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico stated merely, “Yes” when The Independent requested if he had any worries about Gabbard.
One one who is glad to not need to remark? Senator Mitt Romney, who’s retiring on the finish of the yr and who beforehand clashed with Gabbard, whom he accused of spreading Russian propaganda.
“I’m just not commenting on the Trump nominees,” he instructed The Independent. “But I trust my colleagues to take that responsibility seriously.”
That’s the sound of a person unburdened by what has been.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/republicans-tulsi-gabbard-syria-assad-b2662865.html