The Director of National Intelligence believes the network’s reliance on unnamed CIA sources highlights the very individuals that need to be eliminated.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has accused CNN of functioning as a “propaganda arm” for insubordinate intelligence officers. She characterized the network’s report regarding potential retaliation from dismissed spies as an “indirect threat” against President Donald Trump’s administration.
As part of President Trump’s initiative to reduce the size and reorganize the federal government, the CIA recently offered buyouts to its agents. CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported on Monday that some senior CIA officers were “quietly discussing” how these dismissals “risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.”
Gabbard questioned the CIA’s tactics in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, saying, “I am curious about how they think this is a good tactic to keep their job.”
She continued, “They are exposing themselves, essentially, by making this indirect threat – using their propaganda arm, CNN, that they’ve used over and over again – to reveal their hand. Their loyalty is not to America, not to the American people or the Constitution; it is to themselves.”
Trump’s nomination of Gabbard for the top intelligence post in November drew criticism from establishment figures, who deemed her a security risk. Despite the opposition, she was confirmed earlier this month by a Senate vote of 52-48, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky being the only Republican to vote against her confirmation.
In January, the Senate also confirmed John Ratcliffe, another Trump nominee, as . The vote was 74-25. Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and ex-director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, is known to be skeptical of intelligence agencies and critical of investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.