Overview

• Nearly 100 former U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials have called for closed-door Senate hearings to examine Tulsi Gabbard’s qualifications and potential risks to intelligence operations.
• Concerns center on Gabbard’s 2017 meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her anti-interventionist foreign policy, which some critics claim align with Russian and Syrian interests.
• John Bolton, former national security adviser, has suggested that files from Assad’s regime could reveal compromising information about Gabbard and other Americans if Syrian rebels succeed in capturing Damascus.
• Gabbard and her spokesperson have dismissed the allegations as partisan attacks, defending her positions as necessary for peace and criticizing decades of flawed U.S. intelligence decisions.
• The Senate confirmation process is likely to be contentious, with calls to prioritize safeguarding intelligence sources and methods during Gabbard’s evaluation.