Tulsi Gabbard creates new task force to pursue Trump’s favorite vendettas

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is coming after her own staff with a new task force dedicated to exposing any “leakers” who speak to the media. 

Gabbard announced the task force, dubbed the Director’s Initiative Group, in a press release on Tuesday.

“We are already identifying wasteful spending in real time, streamlining outdated processes, reviewing documents for declassification, and leading ongoing efforts to root out abuses of power and politicization,” she said.

Gabbard and her task force are expected to carry out a handful of jobs, including targeting anyone who has shared sensitive information with the media. 

Speaking to Fox News last month, Gabbard provided a few vague examples of intelligence workers speaking with the media. According to her, various “leakers” spoke to outlets such as the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, and NBC News. 

"Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the intelligence community and will hold them accountable," she said. 

But when it comes to national security leaks, like a slew of top Trump officials accidentally sharing details of a bomb strike with a reporter, Gabbard is willing to look the other way.

“It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with high level national security principles having a policy discussion about imminent strikes against the Houthis and the effects of the strike,” Gabbard said to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last month. 

“The conversation was candid and sensitive,” she added, before claiming that “no classified information was shared.”

Overall, Gabbard’s stance on “leakers” is all over the place.

On one hand, Gabbard is coming after any “leakers” who the White House seeks to boot so they can operate in complete secrecy. 

But on the other hand, she once supported Edward Snowden, the king of whistleblowing on national intelligence who blew the cap on U.S. surveillance methods in 2013, escaping to Russia before officials could persecute him. During Gabbard’s Senate confirmation hearing in January, she dodged questions about whether or not he is a traitor to the United States. And in 2020, Gabbard introduced legislation to drop all charges against Snowden.

But whistleblowers and leakers aside, Gabbard’s task force seems to also be a tool to carry out some of President Donald Trump’s personal agendas, including declassifying documents regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy assassination.

And while she didn’t give specific details, Gabbard’s press release implies that her task force will also be coming after the Hunter Biden laptop conspiracy once and for all—a clear kowtow to Trump’s insane demands of loyalty from his Cabinet. 

Since taking office, Trump has demanded extreme loyalty from his staffers, sometimes even putting people through excruciating vetting processes to prove themselves. He has surrounded himself with devoted followers, such as known conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is even exposing employees who don’t seem loyal to Trump’s agendas. 

This, along with the White House’s banning of certain media outlets, only makes it more difficult for the public to understand what is actually happening within the U.S. government.