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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Tulsi Gabbard leaves office without having spoken truth to power

The former intelligence chief stepped down citing family reasons. Critics questioned her handling of intelligence and foreign policy decisions

In the end Tulsi Gabbard wasn’t pushed out of her job as Director of National Intelligence, as Washington’s cognoscenti were expecting (they had started punning that DNI stood for “Do Not Invite”). Instead, Gabbard is leaving for a good and noble reason: to stand by her husband, who has been diagnosed with an “extremely rare form of bone cancer.” I wish them both the best.

And yet, Gabbard’s departure must also be the occasion to take stock of so much that has gone wrong in the intelligence community (IC) that she was tasked to oversee, and by extension in the second administration of President Donald Trump generally. After all, she is leaving just a few months into an unnecessary American war against Iran that both the old Gabbard and the honest current Gabbard would have opposed. Like so many others who have or could have the president’s ear, Gabbard had a duty to tell truth to power. She did not rise to the occasion.

Like some other cabinet members, she was unqualified for the job by any........

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