Senate Dem Calls Out Tulsi Gabbard in Blockbuster Hearing: Did You Change Your Iran Testimony to Not ‘Contradict’ Trump?

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called out Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during a hearing on Wednesday and accused her of omitting information about Iran in her opening statement to flatter President Trump.

“Now, I understand, and I appreciated Director Gabbard’s comments yesterday about agreeing that the president has sole authority—I guess, in his bones—to declare whether something is an imminent threat,” Warner began, referring to Gabbard’s statement on Tuesday in the wake of Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent’s resignation.

Kent accused the Trump administration of misleading the public on Iran posing an “imminent threat” to the U.S. ahead of the U.S. attack on Iran. Gabbard later released a statement defending Trump, arguing that the president made that conclusion based on intelligence from her agencies.

“I didn’t agree with your friend, Mr. Kent, but I did—again, I agreed with him yesterday on the fact that there was no imminent threat,” Warner said, adding:

I guess what I’m concerned about is one thing: even in your printed testimony today on page 6, in your last paragraph on page 6, “As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There’s been no effort to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.” You omitted that paragraph from your oral opening. Was that because the president said there was an imminent threat?

“No, sir. I recognize that the time was running long and I skipped through some of the portions,” Gabbard replied.

“So, you chose to omit the parts that could contradict the president,” shot back Warner.

Trump has long raised eyebrows with his claim that he successfully and completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear program last June, while at the same time has insisted Iran could “soon” reach the U.S. with a nuclear missile.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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