U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was interviewed on Fox & Friends on Oct. 25 and spoke about recent victories over drug cartels and the need for continued U.S.-Mexican cooperation—a tone differing sharply from others in the Trump administration, who call for unilateral actions ignoring the sovereignty of countries like Mexico and others in Ibero-America. Predictably, within seconds, one of the Fox hosts aggressively challenged Gabbard and Mexico’s sincerity in fighting the cartels, asserting that Mexico is a “narco-state” supposedly because President Claudia Sheinbaum is “an ally” of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. How could the U.S. work as partners with Mexico? Gabbard was asked.
Gabbard calmly spoke of the relationship-building that made some of the recent victories possible. “These operations that I spoke about could have only been possible by working with great Mexican partners in their law enforcement who are just as concerned about these cartels wreaking havoc and terror on their own people as we are about them doing to ours,” Gabbard said. She added, “It has been incredible to see how these law enforcement partners have risen to the occasion, how our partners at the highest levels of the Mexican government have shown their commitment and their lack of corruption, their putting themselves at great risk of harm, because they themselves are standing up against these cartels which have unfortunately ruled the day across much of Mexico for too long.”
