Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) attacked Tulsi Gabbard in a Nov. 15 appearance on MSNBC, as a “dangerous” nominee for Director of National Intelligence, as it would make her “a direct line” from the U.S. intelligence community “to our enemies.… Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated State Department guidance and secretly, clandestinely, went to Syria and met with Assad. She’s considered to be, by most assessments, a Russian asset.” The congresswoman said that she personally considers Gabbard as “someone who is likely a Russian asset.” She apparently did not think such a character assessment was worth providing any justification.
However, the congresswoman has a particular history with Gabbard. While she’s not the only one pushing the “Russian agent” line, she does have a vested interest in keeping Gabbard out of the DNI post. When she was head of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, Wasserman Schultz was deeply involved in the secretive and fraudulent arrangements to undermine Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, so as to secure Hillary Clinton’s nomination. Wasserman Schultz lost her job at the DNC when WikiLeaks revealed her involvement. Gabbard, who had supported Sanders and was a vice-chair on the DNC, knew the inside story. Soon afterwards, Gabbard left the DNC over the corruption there.
