More than five dozen former intelligence and national security officials sent a letter to Sen. Tom Cotton, Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, urging the U.S. Senate to “confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence.” The letter was exclusively provided by Fox News Digital today.
The signers include Robert C. O’Brien, former National Security Advisor; Richard Grenell, former Acting Director of National Intelligence; and Rear Admiral Peter J. Brown, USCG ret., former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President.
The letter reads:
Dear Chairman Cotton and Vice Chairman Warner,
We, the undersigned former intelligence and national security officials, urge members of the United States Senate to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. Her service as DNI will begin undoing the gross politicization that has come to characterize intelligence bureaucracies, which has been to the great detriment of the freedom and security of the United States and its citizens.
Lt. Col. Gabbard’s experience more than qualifies her for this important position. A military officer with more than 20 years of honorable service, she undertook multiple combat deployments and risked her life in defense of the United States. In Congress, she served on numerous national security committees and was an outspoken champion for America’s warriors and for our cherished constitutional freedoms.
In both these roles, she experienced first-hand how intelligence, when used as intended, provides critical support to America’s military and political leaders.
When intelligence was abused, Lt. Col. Gabbard spoke up and insisted on safeguards. In contrast to the many former senior intelligence officials who politicized their profession and disgraced themselves by running misinformation operations to undermine the President of the United States—such as by signing the infamous Biden laptop “Russian disinformation” letter or appearing on partisan programs to knowingly mislead the public with false claims of inside knowledge and access to classified information—Lt. Col. Gabbard stood up for truth, integrity, and following the facts. These are precisely the values necessary for the leader of the intelligence community.
As former collectors, analysts, consumers, and enablers of intelligence, we support Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard to lead the IC. She has the integrity, and moral courage, to restore objectivity and professionalism to the nation’s intelligence agencies.