Gabbard leaving ‘not a huge surprise’: Byron York
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation as Director of National Intelligence isn’t unexpected,citing her differences with President Trump’s more interventionist foreign-policy approach and reports that she may have been kept out of key decision-making on issues such as Venezuela and Iran.
York noted Gabbard announced she was stepping down after her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer. Still, he argued that even without the family reason, her departure would likely have come soon. He also said any confirmation process for her interim replacement, principal deputy DNI Aaron Lukas, could be difficult due to Republican divisions and largely unified Democratic opposition. York expects Gabbard’s exit to cause no major shift in direction from Trump’s administration.
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation doesn’t come as a huge surprise, given her stance on some Trump administration policies.
“She has never been really in line with the new sort of interventionist Trump foreign policy, and there were reports that she was kept out of the loop when decisions were made on issues like Venezuela and Iran,” York said on Fox News’s America Reports Friday.
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Gabbard announced her resignation on Friday after her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer.
Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will step in as acting director, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social. Gabbard’s last day in the Trump administration is expected to be June 30.
“Even if there weren’t this serious family reason, I don’t think it would be a huge surprise for her to leave the administration,” York said.
York argued that Gabbard was more aligned with Trump’s 2024 campaign of “no endless wars, not starting new wars, that kind of thing.”
York acknowledged that since then, Trump has shifted and “made exceptions” to that policy.
“The president is trying to figure this thing out obviously, and I don’t think that there’s going to be any huge turn in direction because of the Gabbard thing,” York said.
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York said the confirmation process for Gabbard’s successor could be challenging due to “Republican divisions.”
“You’ve got some unhappy and divided Republicans alongside pretty much unanimous Democratic oppositions,” York said.
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