Gabbard: Legacy Media Continues To Function As Propaganda Arm For Discredited Deep State
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard provides an update on the “very serious investigation” into the Obama administration’s alleged efforts to undermine Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and presidency, during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.”
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS: Here with Reaction is Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. Director Gabbard, thank you very much for joining us tonight. There’s a report tonight from The Federalist that the DOJ is actually asking you for more documents in its grand jury probe. Is that true? What are they asking for now? DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TULSI GABBARD: That is true, Laura. I just want to point out how important this is. Attorney General Pam Bondi, through the Department of Justice, is taking this necessary first step toward accountability, which is essential for the American people to begin to have any kind of trust in the integrity of our democratic republic. I met with the Department of Justice prosecutors today, and yes, they are committed to leaving no stone unturned as they conduct this grand jury investigation and find the truth. Obviously, we’ve already handed over the documents that we’ve declassified and released publicly over the last few weeks. They have more questions, and they’re going to be really taking a deep dive into this, again, looking everywhere to find the truth and conduct this very serious investigation. LAURA INGRAHAM: You heard the media reaction. A lot of these same people were just buying lock, stock and barrel what was sold to them during the 2016 election. But they’re essentially saying, this is all old news. This is such a stupid political move on their part. Into that, you say? TULSI GABBARD: They are using the same old tactic that the deep state’s propaganda arm in the media uses. Whenever they come across something that is true and that doesn’t go along with whatever their narrative is that they’re trying to shove down the throats of the American people, they first usually ignore it, as they did when I first released these documents a couple of weeks ago. They tried to ignore it when they realized that they weren’t going to get away with this, that this story was going to continue a breathing life. We continued releasing new documents. Then they decided, oh, we’ll take this approach and say, oh, this is nothing. There’s nothing really to see here. This is bizarre. This is a conspiracy. These are the that they do over and over and over again. And the next step they will take when they feel that they are not succeeding in getting rid of this truth that we have uncovered for the American people, then they will go down the route of, we must destroy and smear and attack the credibility of those who are delivering the truth to the American people. They’ve done this to President Trump. They’ve done this to me. They’ve done this to so many different people, once again, who are trying to tell the American people the truth and expose these people, many of whom you just showed, for who they are as the propaganda arm of the deep state, which would have no power and no influence if they weren’t able to feed their lies into a willing spokesperson through the propaganda media. LAURA INGRAHAM: Now, Director, you said there was irrefutable evidence that Obama was the mastermind of this intelligence manipulation and the perpetuation of the Russia hoax. What is that irrefutable evidence for our viewers tonight? TULSI GABBARD: Yeah, Laura, as you were playing those clips of these people, like Morning Joe, seemingly befuddled, saying that by no account is any of this true, I would challenge them to see if they’ve actually read the documents, every single page of the documents that we’ve released over the last couple of weeks. If not, go to odni.gov, G-O-V. It’s all right there for anyone to see. And those who go in and read this will see how President Obama directed that a National Security Council meeting be called to talk about Russia, that the report that came out of that meeting was filled with tasks that were delivered by James Clapper’s assistant to John Brennan and to other elements of the intelligence community. John Brennan was the head of the CIA at the time, all saying, per the president’s direction, per the president’s order. And very specifically, they were tasked to create an intelligence assessment that detailed how Moscow tried to influence the election, not if, but how. And this was the beginning of this manufactured intelligence assessment, where they knowingly wrote things in this assessment that were false, and they knew they were false. They knew that they were basing it on discredited intelligence or documents like the Steele dossier that was politically motivated and that they knew was false. And this was how they came up with the Rush hoax that was then weaponized and used to try to delegitimize the president, President Trump, and to try to ultimately enact this years-long coup throughout his entire four years of his first administration. LAURA INGRAHAM: And they further say that there’s this idea of saying that Obama is guilty of treason, that there’s almost no chance that he’s going to be charged or convicted of treason. So why even go there? And I’ll pose that question to you. TULSI GABBARD: The integrity of our democratic republic depends on the American people knowing the truth about what actually happened and seeking that accountability, bringing about that accountability. I don’t know how else to characterize what happens when there is a sitting president of the United States, there is a director of the CIA, a director of national intelligence under President Obama, the head of the NSA-James Comey is the head of the FBI-all coming together, and this is documented in what we released, all coming together to create this lie with the intent of delegitimizing the duly elected president of the United States, because the person they wanted to win actually lost. And the American people made their own choice, in spite of everything that happened in that 2016 election, and they chose Donald Trump. This was not a one-off thing. This wasn’t just, they fudged the lines a little bit. They created a lie and propagated that lie in order to try to undermine the person that the American people chose to be our president and commander-in-chief. LAURA INGRAHAM: To your point that you made earlier, that when they’re losing on the facts, they demonize the messenger. In this case, you’re the messenger, and I think this is a big reason. Your opposition to the forever war syndrome, that’s one reason. But then this was another reason. They clearly did not want you in your position. And to that point, Mark Warner, of course, a Democrat senator from Virginia, wrote on X Today, Tulsi Gabbard is a threat to our national security and should be fired. He’s taking his orders pretty well, don’t you think, Director? TULSI GABBARD: He has and continues to be a reliable soldier. And you’re right there, Laura, to make that comparison, because these very same tactics they’re using now are the same tactics that the warmongers of Washington have consistently used whenever anyone challenges them to say, hey, this does not serve the best interests of the American people. It does not make us more safe, secure and free. So why are you doing this? Exposing these people for who they are, and once again, who is the deep state? What does it consist of? We’re seeing this revealed in real time here. And it’s important for the American people to pay attention and realize, like, hey, with the mainstream propaganda media, we got to pay attention. We got to use our common sense and recognize we should accept nothing they say at face value. LAURA INGRAHAM: And how important is it to root out any remaining problems in these agencies, Director? Because we need our people to believe in the FBI, to believe in the CIA, to have a-or get rid of them altogether. I mean, I hate to say that, or just completely defund a lot of these intelligence agencies. If we can’t trust them, if they’re going to subvert democracy and subvert our presidency, why are we funding them? TULSI GABBARD: Well, this is-and I’ll go back to that Mark Warner tweet that you put out saying that I’m a threat to national security. Why? Because I’m actually exposing the truth. As Director of National Intelligence, I’m doing the work to go and root out those deep state bad actors within the intelligence community, because our country’s national security depends on it. The rule of law requires it. The integrity of our democratic republic requires that, rooting out the truth, telling the truth to the American people, and bringing about that accountability. So yes, it is essential across the board, not only to root out the individual bad actors, but to enact the kind of institutional reform to make it so that these kinds of things cannot be allowed to happen again.