Tulsi Gabbard, Missing in Action

In a SpyTalk interview Gregory Treverton, former chair of the National Intelligence Council, questions why the DNI still has her job–and whether her office should be substantially reduced in size.

A former top U.S. intelligence official has joined a growing chorus contending that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard should either resign or be fired and her office “significantly” cut back in size in the aftermath of the controversy over the effectiveness of the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear program. 

‘“I do wonder why she's there,” said Gregory Treverton, a veteran U.S. national security official who served as chair of the National Intelligence Council between 2014 and 2017, on the SpyTalk podcast (scheduled for publication Friday). 

“By this time, it seems to me she should have resigned if she didn't get fired. She's plainly not part of the team and not trusted, even though she was obviously selected for her presumed loyalty to the president.” 

Treverton’s comments, echoing those made earlier this month by the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,  came in the wake of a disastrous few weeks for Gabbard in which President Trump publicly dissed her, saying in an eye-popping comment to a reporter, “I don't care what she says” when asked about her testimony last March that Iran was not actively seeking to build a nuclear bomb.