Virginia Sen. Mark Warner blasted Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as “not competent,” moments before she dropped a report alleging that the Obama administration stoked election interference claims in a “treasonous conspiracy.”
Warner, the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado discussing the nation’s acuity for intelligence gathering under President Donald Trump when he gave his scathing assessment of Gabbard, The Hill reported.
“Tulsi Gabbard is not competent to be the director of national intelligence,” Warner reportedly told moderator Peter Baker at the event on Friday. “I believe she is trying to politicize the workforce and work product, and that makes America less safe.”
In promulgating her Friday report, Gabbard claimed that the Obama administration promoted claims that Russia interfered with the 2016 election, despite evidence proving otherwise, to undermine Trump’s victory.
“Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” Gabbard said, writing on X that she is turning over her report to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
Yet amid intensifying calls for the Trump administration to make public all the files it has on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Gabbard’s big Obama “conspiracy” report was written off in some online MAGA circles as a dud, and a distraction from Epstein.
“Wasn’t this proven in the muller investigation and made public years ago ? Love the distraction though,” commented @GeorgeTrump on X under Gabbard’s post.
Similarly, Warner criticized the hoopla Gabbard made about her alleged findings, saying in a statement that a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation had “reaffirmed that ‘the Russian government directed extensive activity against U.S. election infrastructure.’”
He added, “This conclusion was supported on a unanimous basis by every single Democrat and Republican on the committee.”
Political commentator Keith Olbermann also waded into the conversation in a post on X roasting Gabbard as “skunk hair.”
“Dear Skunk Hair, @Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against (election) infrastructure,” he wrote. “No shit! Nobody accused of them of altering vote totals or machines. It was their campaign of email jacking to feed your lord and master Trump that constituted his Collusion with Russia.”
Olbermann added, “You’re right - you are not an asset, just an ass.”
Catching wind of Warner’s comments, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, shot back, calling him a “loser.”
“Since he’s dumb enough to fall for politicized intelligence like the debunked Russia Hoax, I think we’re good not taking advice from him,” she wrote on X.
During his conversation at the Aspen Security Forum, Warner also discussed the Trump administration’s decision to fire the director of the National Security Agency, and the big Signalgate group chat text chain, of which Gabbard was a part, The Hill reported.
“You have efforts on politicized product,” Warner said to moderator Baker at the event, referring to the strike discussions on Signal. “Last time that happened, we had a war in Iraq.”
Gabbard has claimed that no classified information was discussed in the chat.
