John Bolton Suggests Assad Regime Has Dirt on Tulsi Gabbard That Syrian Rebels Could Reveal if They Succeed

BOLTON: “I think the success of the rebels has caught pretty much everybody by surprise, including in Washington.”
Dean: “And I want to ask you about Trump’s pick for the director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman. She met with President Assad back in 2017. Nearly 100 former National Security officials are urging a full review of our government, the U.S. government’s files on Gabbard. Are you concerned about her ties to the Syrian regime, her potential ties to Russia, and what power she might hold if confirmed by the Senate?”
BOLTON: “Yeah. I think she’s totally unqualified to be DNI. And I think her positions put her beyond the outermost fringe of American politics. When she visited Assad in Syria, he was effectively a Russian-Iranian ally. And what she said about Syria not being a direct threat to the United States, that was her justification for going, it’s completely false. The Syrians and their combination with Iran and Hezbollah have posed direct threats to Americans across the region. They certainly pose a direct threat to key American allies, Israel and Jordan, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what the files that may be uncovered in the Syrian government, if the rebels succeed in capturing Damascus, what they show about a number of Americans.”