Bulwark Takes - Tulsi Gabbard’s Russia Lies, Exposed

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Will Saletan breaks down how Tulsi Gabbard, now serving as Director of National Intelligence under Trump, is using her position to spread Russian propaganda and undermine the U.S. intelligence community. He highlights how Gabbard has repeatedly downplayed or denied Russian interference in the 2016 election, falsely claiming U.S. intel reports were “manufactured.” Saletan shows Gabbard twisting facts, using small technical truths (like Russia not hacking voting machines) to push big lies that Russia didn’t interfere at all.  He argues Gabbard is doing this not just to protect Trump, but also to defend Vladimir Putin, blaming the U.S. for rising tensions with Russia. He also calls out right-wing media figures like Sean Hannity for enabling her narrative without pushback. Ultimately, Saletan warns that Gabbard is using her powerful role to sabotage American institutions from within.

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If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-53-12600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Ben MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey, it's Will Salatan from The Bullwork. I want to talk to you today about Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. OK, she's in this job. She's completely unqualified for it in terms of her experience. So why is she in this job?

And the answer is Donald Trump put her in this job because he doesn't trust the American intelligence community because the intel community reported that Russia interfered in our 2016 election to help Trump. So Gabbard is in this job. She's been put there to control the intelligence agencies and to protect Trump, but she also has a second person, she's been put there to control the intelligence agencies and to protect Trump. But she also has a second person that she's trying to protect, and that is Vladimir Putin,

the dictator of Russia. So Gabbard has a long record of trying to exonerate Russia for the 2016 election and for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And that is what she's doing now. Let me show you what I'm talking about. First, here's what Gabbard said three years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine. It could have been avoided if President Biden and NATO had done exactly what you were just talking about in agreeing, hey, we're gonna take NATO off the table

for Ukraine, something that both the US and NATO have agreed is not likely to ever happen and something that is a legitimate security concern for Russia. See it's our fault. Russia had these legitimate concerns and that is why they had to attack Ukraine. And then here's what Gabbard said later that year. Our leaders are saying, well, hey, we can't do anything. This is all in Putin's hands.

Well, guess what? The United States, our leaders and European leaders are the ones fueling and funding this war. You get the picture. Gabbard was just repeating Russian talking points. Okay, so fast forward to this week. Gabbard is now the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence,

and she puts out a report claiming that in 2017, when our intelligence community published an assessment that Russia interfered in our 2016 election to help Trump, that assessment was, quote, manufactured. And Gabbard keeps using this word, manufactured, to imply that we fabricated it. Gabbard's report is a total scam. Her trick is she takes intelligence documents that said Russia didn't hack directly into our vote counting systems. And then she uses that to imply that Russia didn't interfere in our election at all, which is totally bogus because there's tons of evidence that Russia did interfere by hacking into other systems like

Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and also Russia was spreading propaganda on our social media to affect the election. Kathy Young has a fantastic piece in the bulwark where she absolutely demolishes Gabbard on exactly this point. But I want to show you something else. Watch what Gabbard said this weekend on Fox and Friends about the intelligence. The intelligence community assessed essentially Russia doesn't have the tools, the capability or the intent to try to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential

election. That is an absolute lie. The intelligence community never said Russia didn't try to change the outcome of the election. It said Russia did try. Now watch Gabbard on another Fox show, Sunday Morning Futures. The evidence showed, the intelligence showed, that again, Russia did not have either the intent nor the capability to be able to impact the outcome of the United States election. Again, an absolute lie. Russia did try to impact the outcome. So you might ask, when Gabbard takes a small truth, which is that Russia didn't change the outcome of our election by hacking into voting systems, and then she inflates it into a big lie that Russia didn't try to change

the outcome of our election at all. Is she just being careless? But the thing is, Gabbard keeps making that move again and again and again. Here's another part of what she said on the Sunday morning show. Another document was produced by the Intelligence Committee, a president's daily brief that was consistent with every Daily Brief that was consistent with every other assessment that was done previously leading up to the election.

Russia was not, did not, this is after the election now, did not attempt to affect the outcome of the American election. Again, that statement that American intelligence said Russia did not attempt to affect the outcome of the election is a big fat lie. And then watch what Gabbard does when Sean Hannity says this. So you had career intel people that came to a conclusion that in fact Russia did not interfere, that it had no impact. Did you catch that? Hannity says American Intel people concluded that Russia did not

interfere in the election and Gabbard nods. And here's the thing. When Gabbard spreads this lie, she's not just protecting Trump. She's protecting Russia. She's saying Russia was innocent. And she says that by falsely accusing Russia, our president at the time, Barack Obama, and his intelligence officials caused the resulting tensions with Russia. Watch.

We had heightened and increased tensions between the United States and Russia. The list goes on and on about the consequences of President Obama and his senior cabinet members politicizing intelligence. This is the same game Tulsi Gabbard has been playing for years. Defend Russia and blame America. She's using her position as director of national intelligence to sabotage our own government. See you next time.