GOP senator: Tulsi Gabbard was only 'compromised for a second' in Syria

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) revealed that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (R-HI) doesn't yet have enough Republican votes to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's director of national intelligence.

During a Monday interview with right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk, Mullin said that Gabbard faced an uphill battle in the Senate because she was "compromised for a second" while traveling to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"Tulsi went to Syria to, you know, on her own," Mullin recalled. "She got intercepted. It shouldn't have took place, but she did. And then there was there was a video released of her."

"This didn't mean that she was an asset," he insisted. "She did get compromised for a second."

"Her trip got compromised because the media took a picture of her and then took a video of her and released it to the public... And now they're all saying — they're saying that she was a Russian asset."

Mullin argued, however, that Gabbard could not be a Russian asset because she is a member of the U.S. military.

"I think right now Tulsi probably sets at 48 Republicans," he said of her confirmation. "There's going to be about five that we have to work past from [voting no]."

In the end, Mullin said he was confident that Gabbard would eventually be confirmed.

"I mean, if I'm putting odds on this, I'm saying 80 to 90 percent confident that we can get Tulsi and Bobby [Kennedy Jr.] pushed through," he explained.

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While there is no evidence that Gabbard directly collaborated with Russia, she has pushed Kremlin talking points that Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because of U.S.-funded biolabs in the country.

"The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow claimed Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons," the Associated Press reported.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said over the weekend that she believed Gabbard was "compromised" because of her trip to Syria.

"The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America's foes. And so my worry is that she couldn't pass a background check," Duckworth explained.

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.