Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her position Friday after months of simmering tensions with President Donald Trump over the Iran war.
Officially, Gabbard said she made the decision to leave because her husband is suffering from a rare form of bone cancer. But reports are already saying she was squeezed out. Some would have preferred she resigned in protest like her former colleague Joe Kent. Still, there is a general consensus among her supporters that she had been sidelined for not kowtowing to the pro-Iran war line, and that it is better to leave with one’s dignity intact than to continue to toil away ineffectually in what may be a sinking ship.
“It’s not clear if she resigned from moral protest, or familial fury, or was ousted. It’s likely an admixture,” Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative, told RS.
“Regardless, as with the more explicit example set by Joe Kent, the principle is clear. Anyone of influence in this administration — with the exception of the vice president, who could become the president and halt this nightmare, and whose seat is constitutionally guaranteed — and who opposes its most serious and most grievous decision, the war with Iran, should have resigned yesterday.”
He added ominously, “Gabbard wasn’t ‘in the room’ at any room. And there is no power or glory in sitting in a waiting room for no reason.”