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Intel nominee Tulsi Gabbard tries to win over skeptics in U.S. Senate confirmation hearing • Louisiana Illuminator

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lailluminator.com – Shauneen Miranda – 2025-01-30 21:21:00

Intel nominee Tulsi Gabbard tries to win over skeptics in U.S. Senate confirmation hearing

by Shauneen Miranda, Louisiana Illuminator
January 30, 2025

WASHINGTON — As Tulsi Gabbard bids to be the next director of national intelligence, the former Hawaii congresswoman took heat from U.S. senators Thursday over her past statements and actions.

Gabbard, seen as President Donald Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominee, has been in the thick of controversy over her views on foreign policy, her meetings with the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and accusations of promoting Russian propaganda.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced serious concerns about Gabbard’s nomination.

If confirmed, Gabbard would take on a massive role in overseeing 18 agencies and organizations in the intelligence community.

She would also be responsible for a budget of more than $100 billion.

Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, ran an unsuccessful 2020 Democratic presidential campaign and later joined the Republican Party.

She echoed Trump’s claims of “weaponization” in the federal government, particularly in the intelligence community, while appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a highly anticipated confirmation hearing.

Gabbard said she would “work to end the politicization of the intelligence community,” if confirmed.

Cotton, Ernst, Burr offer support

Sen. Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence panel, threw his support behind Gabbard ahead of Thursday’s hearing.

The Arkansas Republican took to Gabbard’s defense in his opening remarks, saying he’s “dismayed by the attacks” on “Gabbard’s patriotism and her loyalty to our country.”

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and former North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr also praised Gabbard during their introductions of the nominee, highlighting her military service and congressional record.

Burr, a Republican who previously chaired the Senate Intelligence panel, said Gabbard “fought in war, and yes — she’s tried to stop wars.”

“At the ripe age of 43, Tulsi has the life experiences that match or exceed most members of Congress,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate panel, said he continues to have “significant concerns” regarding Gabbard’s “judgment” and “qualifications to meet the standard set by law.”

“It appears to me, you have repeatedly excused our adversaries’ worst actions — instead, you often blame them on the United States and those very allies,” the Virginia Democrat said.

Bennet presses on Edward Snowden as ‘traitor’

Throughout the tense hearing, Gabbard refused to call Edward Snowden — a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information regarding surveillance efforts — a traitor.

“Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America? That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high,” said Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who asked her the question several times.

While serving in the House, Gabbard introduced a resolution in 2020 alongside then-Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government should drop all charges against Edward Snowden.”

Gabbard repeatedly said Snowden “broke the law” and expressed disagreement with “how he chose to release information and the extent of the information intelligence that he released.”

“It’s my focus on the future, and I think we can all agree that we do not want to have another Snowden-type leak, and I’ve laid out specific actions if confirmed as (director of national intelligence) to do that,” Gabbard said.

But when pressed by Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins on whether she would recommend any kind of clemency for Snowden, Gabbard said she would not support a pardon, if confirmed.

FISA Section 702

Senators also called out Gabbard’s previous views against Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a program that authorizes the federal government to conduct surveillance on foreigners outside of the country.

Gabbard introduced a bill in 2020 with Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky that sought to repeal the program.

However, she reversed course and is now in support of Section 702, which she said “provides a unique security tool and capability that is essential for our national security.”

Meeting with ousted Syrian dictator, views on Russia

Gabbard also expanded on her controversial meetings with then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017.

“I have no love for Assad or Gaddafi or any dictator,” Gabbard said in her opening remarks. “I just hate al-Qaida.”

Gabbard said that when she met with Assad, she “asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions, the use of chemical weapons and the brutal tactics that were being used against his own people.”

She also said Russian President Vladimir Putin “started the war in Ukraine.”

Gabbard previously made comments appearing to blame the United States and NATO for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border,” she wrote in a post on social media in February 2022. 

Last updated 4:31 p.m., Jan. 30, 2025

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

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Heavy rain returns Sunday; flooding possible

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www.youtube.com – WDSU News – 2025-06-15 06:50:18

SUMMARY: Heavy rain returns Sunday with possible flooding, continuing a wet pattern through much of the week. A flood advisory was in effect for parts of the metro area Saturday afternoon, and today’s forecast calls for numerous showers and thunderstorms, especially in the afternoon and evening. Morning hours will be drier, but rainfall and heavy downpours are expected later on. Temperatures will reach the low 90s with high humidity, creating a muggy atmosphere. A tropical wave in the Caribbean remains disorganized, and the tropics are quiet for the next week. Conditions may improve slightly by Friday and Saturday, but heat and humidity will rise.

Heavy rain returns Sunday; flooding possible

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‘Sanctuary city’ governors object to Trump deployment of troops into Los Angeles

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lailluminator.com – Ariana Figueroa – 2025-06-14 05:00:00


Democratic Governors Tim Walz, J.B. Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul criticized President Trump’s deployment of over 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles without California’s consent. At a tense House Oversight Committee hearing, they condemned the action as undemocratic and inflammatory. The hearing followed mass ICE raids in L.A., triggering protests. A confrontation erupted over video showing Sen. Alex Padilla being forcibly removed by Secret Service. Republicans defended Trump’s actions and accused the governors of violating immigration law. The governors defended their policies, calling ICE tactics traumatic and authoritarian, likening them to Gestapo methods used in Nazi Germany.

by Ariana Figueroa, Louisiana Illuminator
June 14, 2025

WASHINGTON — Three Democratic governors from states that leave immigration enforcement to the federal government said Thursday they oppose President Donald Trump’s decision to send more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines into Los Angeles without the consent of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The lengthy and tense U.S. House hearing where the trio appeared — highlighted by a shouting match among members and accusations of Nazi tactics — came as the nation’s capital prepared for a major military parade and Trump’s birthday Saturday, along with thousands of “No Kings” protests across the country.

In Los Angeles, a U.S. senator was tackled and removed from an immigration press conference by federal law enforcement agents accompanying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The governors, whose states have submitted an amicus brief to a lawsuit by Newsom challenging Trump, said the decisions to bring in the military should be made by local officials.

“It’s wrong to deploy the National Guard and active-duty Marines into an American city over the objection of local law enforcement, just to inflame a situation and create a crisis, just as it’s wrong to tear children away from their homes and their mothers and fathers, who have spent decades living and working in our communities, raising their families,” Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

The hearing with Govs. Pritzker, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York marked the second time House Republicans have called in leaders in blue states that have policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration officials in enforcement efforts. Those policies do not bar immigration enforcement from occurring.

Republicans brought in the mayors of Boston, Chicago and Denver in March.

The eight-hour hearing came after multi-day protests in Los Angeles sparked when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began widespread immigration raids at Home Depots in their communities in an effort to carry out the president’s mass deportation efforts.

The governors stressed that the president’s decision to send in the National Guard set a dangerous precedent and posed a threat to democracy.

Republicans on the committee defended the president’s actions and instead accused the governors of violating federal law because of their state policies, dubbed as “sanctuary cities.” Immigration policy is handled by the federal government and states and localities are not required to coordinate with officials.

Shouting match over Noem

More than four hours into the hearing, video circulated of California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla being forcibly removed and handcuffed by Secret Service agents while trying to ask a question of Noem during a press conference in LA.

Democrats on the panel, such as Arizona Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari, slammed the video and raised concerns that a “sitting senator was shoved to the ground.”

It led to a shouting match, with Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost asking the chair of the panel, James Comer of Kentucky, if the committee would subpoena Noem.

Comer said Frost was out of order and tried to move on.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was next in line for questioning, heckled Frost and said that Democrats “can’t follow the rules.” Comer eventually told Frost to “shut up.”

Pritzker said that he could not “believe the disrespect that was shown to a United States senator” who was trying to ask Noem a question.

“That seems completely irrational,” Pritzker said.

Democrats on the panel such as Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez and Dan Goldman of New York called for Noem to appear before the committee.

“Anyone with two eyes that can see, can see that was authoritarian, lawless behavior that no person in America, much less a senator conducting congressional oversight, should receive,” Goldman said.

‘People are living in fear’

The Democratic governors defended their immigration policies and criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, pointing to ICE officers wearing face coverings to arrest immigrants.

“People are living in fear in the shadows,” Hochul said. “People can’t go to school, they can’t worship, they can’t go get health care. They can’t go to their senior center. What is happening has been traumatic.”

Several Republicans including Reps. Comer, Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, took issue with comments by Walz at a commencement speech in May, in which he accused the president of turning ICE agents into a modern-day Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany.

Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri said that Walz should apologize.

Walz said that as a former history teacher, he was making an observation about ICE tactics — such as wearing a face covering to arrest people — that were similar to those used by secret police.

The top Democrat on the panel, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, defended Walz’s statement, and said that ICE is operating like a modern-day Gestapo.

Lynch pointed to the video of the international Tufts University student who was approached by masked men on the street and taken into a van for writing an op-ed in defense of Palestinian human rights.  

“ICE agents wearing masks and hoodies detained Rümeysa Öztürk and those of you who watched that, that abduction, when you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland, and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that student, that graduate student, it does look like a Gestapo operation,” Lynch said.

 

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

The post ‘Sanctuary city’ governors object to Trump deployment of troops into Los Angeles appeared first on lailluminator.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content predominantly presents the perspective of Democratic governors and lawmakers who criticize the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and military deployment in Los Angeles. It highlights opposition to aggressive immigration raids and emphasizes the protection of immigrant communities, framing the federal government’s actions as authoritarian. While it includes Republican responses and viewpoints, the tone and detail given to Democratic criticisms suggest a center-left bias, focusing on human rights and local authority against federal overreach.

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Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites and kills its top generals. Iran retaliates with missile barrage

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wgno.com – JON GAMBRELL, JOSEF FEDERMAN and JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press – 2025-06-13 16:14:00

SUMMARY: Israel launched a major airstrike on Iran’s nuclear and military sites, killing top generals and scientists, aiming to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran retaliated with dozens of ballistic missiles targeting Israel’s major cities, causing casualties and damage. The conflict escalated regional tensions, with global calls for de-escalation. Israel used smuggled drones and precision strikes to hit key facilities, notably Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei vowed revenge. The U.S. supported Israeli defense efforts while warning against targeting American interests. The operation reflects longstanding Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions amid a fragile Middle Eastern security landscape.

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The post Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites and kills its top generals. Iran retaliates with missile barrage appeared first on wgno.com

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