Episode summary
Tulsi Gabbard on Russiagate Hoax Evidence and How She’s Reforming Politicized Intelligence Agencies
All-In Podcast
· · Hosts: Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, David Friedberg · Guests: Tulsi Gabbard
Summary
Tulsi Gabbard argued that the Russiagate narrative was built on politicized intelligence, and that declassified documents show senior Obama-era officials pushed an assessment that contradicted earlier intelligence. She said the December 8, 2016 presidential daily brief was pulled, then a small group at the CIA, FBI, NSA and DNI produced a January 2017 assessment that hid weak or noncredible sources, including the Steele dossier. In her telling, the result was a manufactured intelligence product used to undermine Trump’s presidency and the 2016 vote.
She tied the episode to a broader warning about accountability inside the intelligence community, saying politicized intelligence has repeatedly led to dangerous outcomes, including the Iraq War. Gabbard said her remedy is transparency, referrals to the Justice Department, and changing culture inside ODNI by trimming bureaucracy and focusing on mission and accountability.
The conversation then moved to her political evolution, foreign policy, Iran, the southern border, and cartels. She said Trump’s strike on Iran achieved a clear objective, and she defended the cartel-terrorist designation as a response to fentanyl deaths and increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. On China, she said she had not seen intelligence supporting the claim that Beijing is deliberately supporting fentanyl as strategy, but she said precursor chemicals remain a major issue.
Key takeaways
- Gabbard said the Russiagate files show senior officials pushed an intelligence narrative that was not supported by the underlying evidence.
- She said politicized intelligence can distort elections and has historically produced major policy failures, citing Iraq as the cautionary example.
- Gabbard said ODNI is being reoriented around transparency, accountability, and a smaller, more mission-focused workforce.
- She said Trump’s Iran strike had a clear objective and was executed with an exit strategy she viewed as disciplined.
- She supported designating cartels as terrorist organizations because of fentanyl deaths, cross-border violence, and the need for broader counterterror tools.
Notable quotes
“how intelligence and information can be actually manipulated intentionally so that it shows something that is not reflective of the truth at all”
“We created something that wasn't there”
“the party is is unrecognizable in just about every way”
“If they're not a terrorist organization, please tell me what one is”
How the episode opens
From Democratic congresswoman to staunch Trump supporter, both loved and heavily criticized for her independent thinking. She won't be bought. She won't be bullied.
The director of national intelligence, Chelsea Gabbard. Aloha. It's just BS.
I've always been a very fiercely independent-minded person. I know exactly what I need to do here and how deep the rot is within the intelligence community. that has to be rooted out.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Tulsi Gabbard. Hello. Nice to see you, Chelsea.
Thanks for coming. Thank you for being here. Thank you.
Aloha, everybody. Aloha. Um, we were all clamoring to kind of frame this and then Sach said, "I really just need to do the kickoff because he really wanted to tee this up.
So, I'm going to seed my responsibility in introducing you because everybody knows who you are, but David just there's just too much red meat. David's been frothing. Tulsi doesn't need a a big introduction, but everyone knows she's a director of national intelligence.
And um in the words of President Trump is the the hottest member of the administration. I think he means in the the sense of having released the biggest news story of the year and specifically files. Uh you declassified and released a series of files related to the whole Russia gate hoax and many of the documents are just stunning.
I'll I'll let you speak to it. But I think you know there's still maybe a few holdouts out there in the world. Not that many who still don't Who are you looking at right now?
Who are you talking? in particular, but uh who don't seem to understand what this Russia gate hoax was about. Can you just maybe this is the place to start and then we can drill into some of the details.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- russiagate hoax
- politicized intelligence agencies
- 2016 russian interference
- iran foreign policy and bombing
- drug cartels and southern border safety
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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