Tulsi Gabbard faces fresh scrutiny over her role in military strikes as videos resurface from six years ago in which she slammed President Donald Trump’s previous actions on Iran.
Back then, she was a Democratic presidential candidate and a persistent critic of what she described as the dangers of “war without congressional authority.”
“We’ve gotta be clear-eyed about the situation that we’re in,” Gabbard told Fox News in January 2020, following a strike in which the Trump administration killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
“Inching closer; actually, more than inching... Speeding towards an all-out war with Iran would make the wars that we’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan look like a picnic,” Gabbard said.
“It will be far more costly in American lives and American taxpayer dollars, and all towards accomplishing what goal? What objective?”
That video clip, and others like it, have renewed questions over Gabbard’s stance now she joined Trump’s administration as Director of National Intelligence.
Gabbard, normally a prolific poster on social media, has not updated her X or Facebook pages since February 25, even as other members of the current Trump administration have declared their support for war with Iran.
However, a picture released by the White House shows her in the heart of the action as the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday morning, sitting in the Situation Room alongside Vice President JD Vance, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
It’s a startling turnaround for Gabbard, who spent years vehemently opposing American military action overseas.
In another video resurfaced from 2020, Gabbard slammed Trump for “seriously escalating the situation” with Iran and pushing the U.S. into another unwanted war.
“It’s not a matter of well, are we going to have a war with Iran... We are in a war with Iran right now. So the real issue is, are we going to allow this war to continue to escalate? And if so, for how long and to achieve what objective?"
At the time, Gabbard insisted that retribution alone was not enough to justify killing Soleimani.
“We’ve gotta make sure that our commander in chief is making decisions based on the best interests of the safety and security of the American people, our own national security, and that’s not what’s happened here,” she told Fox News.
Gabbard, a former Hawaii congresswoman with a military record that included serving in Iraq, was well familiar with the costs of war.
“When the bullets start flying and the bombs start dropping, terrible things can happen that no one has planned for,” she wrote on Facebook in 2020.
“This is one of the great tragedies of war. Unintended consequences and so-called ‘collateral damage.’”
She frequently spoke out against 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling her "the queen of warmongers,” and in October 2022, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, accusing it of dragging the U.S. “closer to nuclear war.”
Gabbard subsequently became a Republican and endorsed Trump in 2024, landing a job as DNI in his second administration.
Even from within Trump’s inner circle, Gabbard has appeared reluctant to beat the drums of war, announcing last March that there was no evidence to suggest that Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
“The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard had said.
Trump was furious about being contradicted and declared that his DNI’s intelligence was wrong.
Gabbard subsequently reversed course and claimed that Iran could have a nuclear weapon built “within weeks to months.”
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