Well, is Tulsi Gabbard Donald Trump's pick to be the head of national intelligence, a Russian asset? The fact that I even have to start this hot take this way tells you that she should not be nominated to have all of our secrets and be our spy master.
Let's look into Tulsi Gabbard and why she should be disqualified from holding high office, let alone one at the very top of our top secret national security. I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Touch network and on legal AF, let's take a close look at Tulsi Gabbard. People are asking these serious questions because of her own statements and comments and conduct in the past.
It's not, we didn't just randomly wake up one morning and say, let's accuse a former Democrat now, Republican MAGA, supporting Donald Trump of being a Russian asset. Where would we come up with that? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because there is, she went on Russian television a number of times. And when she was done on Russian television, she started pushing Putin and Kremlin's talking points to justify their invasion of Ukraine.
The false story, for instance, that there are bio labs funded by the US in Ukraine that were being used to develop biological weapons against Russia as a justification for them, breaching Ukraine's sovereignty and killing hundreds of thousands of people. That is a page right out of the Kremlin. And all of a sudden, Tulsi Gabbard started selling that, which was a lie.
is as a cover story for the Russians. Let's play a clip of two years ago, Tulsi Gabbard on Tucker Carlson. Let's roll the clip.
I'm extremely concerned as should be every American and everyone in the world. The seriousness of this situation really can't be overstated. First of all, she didn't say no when she was asked by Marco Rubio about there being biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine. So if there were or are, obviously that would be a violation of the biological weapons convention. Number two,
They're categorically been trying to hide this as you've laid out very, very well. And then once they were found out, rather than saying, hey, you know what, this is a critical an emergency. It's a crisis. We have these pathogens in the midst of a war zone, not just in one location, but between 20 and 30 labs in Ukraine. This is a global crisis. We're going to take action immediately. This is how a responsible leader would react given the crisis of this moment. But instead, what do they do?
Her response to Senator Rubio was immediately start pointing fingers. We're going to preemptively start the blame game should anything happen to these pathogens and who knows what is going on in these labs before anything bad happens. Just say, you know what, it's the bad guys. It's the bad guys who are responsible for this.
It is the height of irresponsibility, their response to this, the fact that they're covering it up, the fact that they aren't doing really what needs to be done, because if unless this war in Ukraine ends right now, ends tonight.
We face a very real certainty that one or more of these labs will be compromised, will be breached, and it won't just be the people of Ukraine who are impacted. We could face another global crisis when you look at a pathogen that could be released. We just went through this with COVID. We can't have forgotten this already.
And once again, agencies in the US government that are knowledge are secretly funding research that, you know, imperils the world and no one has ever punished for it. That's Putin propaganda 101. We already know that Russian television infiltrated Americans, American electorate and the American media, right-wing media, by paying $10 million
to a organization down in Tennessee that has a lot of right-wing podcasters. All of a sudden they started spouting after $10 million was received. All sorts of Russian propaganda. And so did Tulsi Gabbard. In fact, there's other reporting that Putin set up in this country through a Russian foreign agent.
a woman who went by the name of America of Elena Brunson running the Russia Institute in New York, which was a front for Putin in order to try to use disinformation and misinformation campaigns to influence American voters. Elena Brunson made one donation during the election cycle a few years ago. And guess who it went to? Tulsi Gabbard. It's gotten so bad that even Russian television, state-owned television,
which is run by Putin. Everything approved by Putin, particularly a channel or an entity known as Rhea Novasti. It's on-air commentators were laughing and speculating recently that she must be a Russian asset. She's a, quote, superwoman. This is them commenting on the person Donald Trump has picked to be.
our director of national intelligence to which the CIA director reports. Okay. There's commenting and laughing on television and speculating that she is a Russian asset that the Ukrainian certainly believe that look, the, the Ukrainian, the Ukrainian government believes that Tulsi Gabbard is compromised and is working for Russia security services. Point blank.
So how will she ever get through a confirmation process? Well, of course, Donald Trump doesn't want her to get through a confirmation process. He wants to skip the confirmation process. He wants to skip the FBI vetting background check. He wants to just hand her bestow upon her top secret security clearance.
use some sort of recess appointment trick technique to get to get the Senate to lay down for him and go away for 10 days or more on a gone fishing holiday to allow for the recess appointment of somebody as obscenely unqualified somebody who will compromise our national security at the top of the national security food chain.
It's so bad that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of the leaders of the Democrats, actually said out loud during an interview that she believes that Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset or agent. Let's roll that clip.
This is an extremely important appointment. I mean, you wouldn't trust Matt Gaetz. Most parents wouldn't trust Matt Gaetz with their teenager. Never mind with our entire system of justice. So, I mean, for the president to nominate him to be in charge of our entire system of justice is really dangerous and I just want to underscore that.
all the time to get your perspective. Of course, out there, I want to ask you about former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence. You have a history with the former Congresswoman. What do you think of her being tapped to be Director of National Intelligence?
Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated the Department of State's guidance, and secretly clandestinely went to Syria and met with Assad, who gassed and attacked his own people with chemical weapons. She's considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset, and would be the most dangerous... Is that how you consider her?
Oh yes, there's no question. I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset, who would be as the DNI responsible for managing our entire intelligence community, hold all of our most significant intelligence information and secrets, and essentially would be a direct line to our enemies. And so, the irresponsibility of these appointments
She's not the first Democrat to call it out. Hillary Clinton two years ago put her put Tulsi Gabbard on her back foot saying that she believed based on everything that she had heard and read that she is a Russian agent. I mean, the only thing that Tulsi Gabbard spouts is the talking points of Kremlin and bad people when she's not when she's not also also get this meeting with Assad of Syria.
sworn enemy of the American people, one who used chemical weapons against his own people, one that committed genocide against his own people. And how did she, and what did she say? She acted like she just visited Disney World and got a turkey leg. She came back from a visit and said, he's not an enemy of the Americans. He has no interest in attacking America. What about the human rights violations? What talk about sane watching?
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So she's been a front for Assad, killer of her own people, of his own people, a front for Putin. She takes donations apparently from Russian operatives who sole purpose in being in the United States and being funded by Putin is to try to co-opt assets here.
And she could never, I'll make this clear, she could never Tulsi Gabbard get a security clearance if she was applying for a job in the CIA. If she was applying for an internship or a job, she could never get any kind of security clearance and they would bounce her application immediately.
So for Donald Trump, that sounds great to him. He'll just make her the head of the CIA effectively. I mean, there is a CIA director now, but it would report to the director of national intelligence. We don't just do our superpower thing alone.
We rely on a network and a constellation of allies to work with us, especially when it comes to intelligence, to keep Americans safe. I thought that's what this was about, keeping Americans safe, not compromising them immediately by putting to the top of the food chain and intelligence, a incompetent is giving her too much credit, a compromised
ethically challenged potential Russian asset at the top. What does that say to our allies? How are we ever going to continue to operate our network and constellation of intelligence gathering operations with our allies with Tulsi Gabbard at the top? Don't never share information with us. They'll always be like, well, we can't tell the Americans this because, well, you know, Tulsi,
Do we want our allies holding back and stammering and stuttering at the moment we need protection? What about, you know, I talked at length about the five eyes, the five eyes alliance, which is the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. They all share intelligence information. The one reason we don't have things blowing up all around America, I'm talking about
a foreign terrorist attacks since 9-11 is because of organizations and alliances like the Five Eyes. You think the other four eyes are going to want to turn over data willingly, knowing that it could route up to Tulsi Gabbard to be turned over to Putin or Assad? Come on. Even Cornyn, the senator who just missed being Senate Majority Leader, who's a leader in the Senate, he said, we're going to take a look at Tulsi Gabbard. Yeah, you better.
You better take a hard look at her. That's where advice and consent is the last remaining firewall in our checks and balance to stop a crazed out of control power thirsty president who's incoming from appointing people who should be closer to being in jail on the spectrum than heading our national intelligence. It's done. It's left to the Senate.
You know, especially when you have this dangerous combination, Department of Defense is going to be headed by a white Christian far-right Christian nationalist who believes that the apocalypse is a good thing. And it's the only establishment of Jerusalem and Israel in its place on earth and the Bible is a good thing. You know, through war, that's our new Department of Defense said, the guy, you know, so Heg Seth,
who's not bright enough to even get on the weekday edition of Fox and Friends. He was relegated to the Saturday edition of Fox and Friends. And because he's a pretty boy, he gets to host the New Year's E ball drop along with Anderson Cooper up on the platform. That's our new director of Defense Department of Defense Secretary. He's going to be working with Tulsi Gabbard to keep us safe with the commander in chief, Donald Trump.
I thought they were running on a platform to stop World War III, not cause it. I must have missed that in the campaign literature and at the rallies. Tulsi Gabbard is a danger to the American way of life and to our security. She can't get anywhere near the White House. The talking points that she is known for, particularly,
about Russia alone is a lie, you know, about the Ukraine and Russia alone is a lie. You know, the biological weapons labs being run by American dollars, and that was the proper justification for Russia to attack that alone for me to disqualify, sir.
fact that she's making the justification for Russia to ignore sovereignty and take over a neighboring country. That alone for me is enough to get rid of her. So we're going to continue to follow Tulsi Gabbard. Who's right and who's wrong? This is black and white. This is binary. She either is a compromised Russian asset or she is not.
And if the Democrats are right, Clinton and Wasserman Schultz at all, this has to be front and center in her Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing. And the senators who are slowly peeling away the Republican ones from the majority on these outlandish rogues gallery of nominees got to do their job. We got to do their job, recess appointment. They need to work night and day to make sure these people
are not confirmed. We'll follow it on Midas Touch Network and on legal AF, our podcast on Wednesdays and Saturdays on the Midas Touch Network, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and then on audio podcast platforms of your choice. Come on over to our new channel, LegalAF, the channel, the YouTube channel at LegalAFMTN for all of our law and politics commentary and analysis. So my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak.
In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the LegalAF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at LegalAFMTN. That's at LegalAFMTN.