President Donald Trump's intelligence chief no longer seems to be working in the best interest of America, according to one analyst.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was one of Trump's most controversial cabinet picks. Not only does she have no direct intelligence experience, but she has also held clandestine meetings with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, publicly supported people who leaked classified military information, and has ties to shady religious groups.
However, none of those issues rise to the level of using her position to protect one of America's biggest enemies: Russia.
Will Saletan, a writer for the conservative outlet The Bulwark, has seen this disturbing trend escalate over the last week as the Trump administration tries to evade the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
"She's using her position as Director of National Intelligence to sabotage our own government," Saeltan said.
One way they've tried to dodge the Epstein story is by reviving debunked claims about Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. America's intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the election by using digital strategies to elevate Trump and damage Hillary Clinton.
But that's not the way Gabbard sees it. Instead, she's told "big lies" about Russia's technical sophistication to conduct such an operation and tried to downplay Russia's interference by saying the country did not change any votes.
"You might ask, when Gabbard takes a small truth like Russia didn't change the outcome of the election by hacking into voting systems, and then 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?" Saletan said on a recent podcast episode.
"Here's the thing: when Gabbard spreads this lie, she's not just protecting Trump," Saletan said. "She's protecting Russia!"
