A very frustrated Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) lashed out at three of Donald Trump’s Cabinet officials on Thursday afternoon after they professed to only pass on intel data to the president and allow him to draw his own conclusions.
During a very contentious five-minutes of questioning, Gomez repeatedly had to shout over Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and reclaim his time as she droned on about the president being the ultimate authority on how to interpret foreign intelligence.
On Wednesday, Gabbard said at a Senate hearing, “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat.”
Asked on Thursday by Gomez if she stood by her assertion that astounded observers, she bluntly stated “yes,” which led him to turn to CIA Director John Ratcliffe and ask if he agreed with his Cabinet colleague.
“The president is the Commander-in-Chief and gets to make a decision about what's an imminent threat —,” Ratcliffe began, before Gomez talked over him and the two refused to stop.
Gomez got the upper hand and exclaimed, ”Why is that if the President can determine and ignore what you're doing, why do you guys even have a job? Why do you even advise them? So you're saying tomorrow the President of the United States can say China is an imminent threat and then he can take his own — no matter what the intelligence says, he can take his own action. That's what you're basically saying.”