Tulsi Gabbard Makes a Grand Exit

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, will be officially leaving her post on June 19. She is resigning to care for her husband, who is battling a rare form of bone cancer.

Gabbard has enjoyed a remarkably successful tenure as DNI and is using her final days in office to unleash several bombshell reports. On Friday, Gabbard rescinded two intelligence assessments from the administration of President Joe Biden regarding the mysterious set of ailments known as “Havana Syndrome,” which has sickened our spies and diplomats on missions throughout the world.

It was first reported by U.S. officials serving in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. The victims reported feeling head trauma with symptoms consistent with “vertigo and extreme headaches.” For years, some analysts speculated that the victims suffered a type of direct energy attack. Yet, the Biden administration downplayed the reports and dismissed the possibility that the ailments were caused by a foreign adversary. Gabbard blasted these findings for excluding key information, suppressing “alternative analysis,” and using an “ethically flawed medical study.”

In another major development, on Friday, Gabbard declassified information regarding the United States taxpayer funding of more than 120 biolabs in 30 countries. She also lambasted the Biden administration for lying about the existence of such labs. Gabbard said,  “Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”

She also pledged that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) would lead an effort “to end dangerous Gain-of-Function research that threatens the health and well-being of the American people and people around the world.” In March of 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order banning U.S. funding of Gain-of-Function research in “China, Iran or other nations that don’t exercise proper oversight.” The President noted that the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic was a perfect example of how dangerous pathogens “can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently…and half destroy the world.”

One nation that is a disturbing home for dangerous biolabs is Ukraine, especially since it is involved in a bloody 52-month war with Russia. Due to the war, “proper oversight” is next to impossible in Ukraine.

Nonetheless, about 33% of the biolabs identified by the ODNI are in war-torn Ukraine, making the release of dangerous pathogens a realistic possibility. The ODNI reported that the pathogens included “Anthrax, tularemia, tuberculosis, Swine Fever, (New Castles) Disease, MERS, SARS, Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, the Plague, Rickettsia and others.” In just four of the Ukrainian laboratories, U.S. funding exceeded $9 million.

Gabbard’s announcement raises disturbing questions, such as why the U.S. is funding such biolabs in direct contradiction to the President’s Executive Order? Why did the Biden administration lie about the presence of such biolabs in Ukraine?

The new information completely vindicates Gabbard, who raised questions about the biolabs in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the time, she was accused by several political leaders of repeating Russian “lies.” For example, then Utah Senator Mitt Romney said, “Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.”

As usual, Mitt Romney was completely wrong. In its Friday statement, the ODNI claimed, “The information surrounding the existence, history, locations, and funding of these US-funded biolabs has been intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise (of being) foreign assets and traitors to America.”

To replace Gabbard, President Trump has tapped an interim DNI, Bill Pulte, and a permanent DNI, Jay Clayton, whom he urged the U.S. Senate to confirm quickly.

Presumably, the new DNI will be more comfortable with the Trump administration’s foreign policies than Gabbard. According to media reports, Gabbard was not especially supportive of U.S. military action in Iran or Venezuela. Consequently, she was sidelined recently in favor of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, whom the President has relied on extensively for counsel on intelligence matters. Gabbard’s positions are not surprising, given her record of opposition to U.S. military involvement abroad.

Despite these disagreements, Gabbard has done tremendous work leading the U.S. intelligence community and directing the operations of 18 different agencies. During her tenure, she slashed ODNI spending by an impressive 40%. She blazed the path for the next DNI, who will follow President Trump’s directive to continue to cut spending.

Gabbard also provided a major public service last year by declassifying documents related to the 2016 “Trump-Russia collusion hoax.” This fraudulent conspiracy was used by Democrats and GOP Trump haters to paint the President as a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was based on the phony dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

It set the stage for the President and his campaign to be spied on by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and for an expensive, wide-ranging, but unnecessary, two-year investigation of the President by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. While Trump was eventually exonerated, it cast a pall over the first two years of his presidency.

Gabbard provided the evidence to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal referral and revoked the security clearances of the intelligence analysts involved in the hoax. She claimed that the entire setup of President Trump was a “treasonous conspiracy” by former President Barack Obama and his intelligence advisers.

Her courage and commitment to the truth set Tulsi Gabbard apart. For citizens to trust our government, there must be transparency. For decades, political leaders and government officials have kept secrets from Americans. On rare occasions, a leader like Tulsi Gabbard emerges to expose the lies.

Tulsi Gabbard, thank you for your honorable service to the American people, and best wishes as you embark on the next chapter in your life.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from Noon until 1 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com

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