Tuesday, on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reacted to revelations she was surveilled by federal air marshals.
According to Gabbard, she was targeted in August 2024 after criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time had just inherited the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Partial transcript as follows:
INGRAHAM: Now, you came on with us in August 2024 when we first learned about this. What new can you tell us?
TULSI GABBARD, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Well, first thing, Laura, I want to go back a little bit before then because it was an interview that I did with you during the end of July that really kicked off why I was placed on this list in the first place.
INGRAHAM: Sorry.
GABBARD: I was talking to you about how Joe Biden had just stepped down, Kamala Harris was going to be the Democratic nominee, and I was warning the American people about how dangerous she would be for our country’s security, the safety security and freedom of the American people if she were to become commander-in-chief.
The very next day — this was in Rome — I got on a plane with my husband to fly back to the United States after having conducted meetings there in the Vatican with other Americans, that I was placed on this secret domestic terror watch list called Quiet Skies.
What Senator Paul is talking about here documents that confirm two things. One, that what I experienced and what whistleblowers came forward and exposed very early on in August is absolutely true. It goes into detail about what that surveillance consisted of.
Some of the things Senator Paul mentioned, they had to report back, these federal air marshals who were surveilling me about my appearance, about what kind of electronic devices that I had in my possession, did I have any interactions with unknown individuals while traveling — the list goes on and on.
But the second thing that these documents confirm is once again that that it was absolutely politically motivated. And I know this because these other Americans who were attending the same meetings that I was at the Vatican, not a single one of them, to include former Trump administration officials, not a single one of them were put on this Quiet Skies list.
And the only difference was they were not on your show the day before traveling back to the United States or any show for that matter publicly criticizing then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
INGRAHAM: So, they were trying to put the cone of protection around her, probably knowing that she was going to falter going forward, and this was a way to kind of make you step back from that? I mean, they were trying to intimidate you?
GABBARD: I think they were trying to intimidate me. But also they were trying to really create this chilling effect probably knowing that I wouldn’t stay silent about it and send a message out to people that if you go and criticize then-Vice President Kamala Harris who is now going to be the Democratic nominee for president — you, too, would face the consequences.
And I am not the only person, by the way, under this Quiet Skies domestic terror watch and surveillance program that was targeted for political reasons. There are many people, one even the wife of a federal air marshal who happened to be in Washington, D.C. on January 6 nowhere near the Capitol, she was on this Quiet Skies list for over two years and surveilled even when traveling with her federal air marshal husband.
There are countless examples that we could go through once again that show very clearly the Biden administration’s weaponization and politicization of the government against everyday Americans, violating our most fundamental constitutional rights and civil liberties.
Follow Jeff Poor on X @jeff_poor
