Tulsi Gabbard’s Georgia Raid Is a Pretext for Future Election Intimidation

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard loves the spotlight as much as anyone in the Trump administration and is far more telegenic than most cabinet members. But for most of the last year, his presence has been significantly less visible than many of his colleagues. Before jumping on the Trump bandwagon, Gabbard had a profile as a Democrat critical of the forever wars, a history that put her at odds with Trump as he pursued an openly imperialist and bellicose foreign policy. Although she holds the top intelligence position in the administration, she has been kept out of key policies aimed at bombing Iran and kidnapping the president of Venezuela.

But even if Trump hasn’t needed Gabbard’s foreign policy advice, that doesn’t mean she’s entirely superfluous. Gabbard made herself useful by becoming the driving force behind a dangerous campaign to justify her conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, Gabbard participated in an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia. Following the raid, Trump began publishing a series of unhinged and discredited conspiracy theories, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen by a cabal including former President Barack Obama, the FBI, the CIA, as well as the Italian and Chinese governments. One post quoted a Twitter user named The SCIF who wrote (in part):

Italian officials at Leonardo SpA used military satellites to hack U.S. voting machines, switching votes from Trump to Biden using CIA-developed tools like Hammer and Scorecard. As well as many other methods of fraud and manipulation. China allegedly coordinated the entire operation, providing the technological infrastructure and bribes to the corrupt Americans.

Even though this conspiracy theory is completely unfounded, it has a strong hold on Trump’s imagination. He brings it up on the most unexpected occasions, notably to justify the kidnapping of Venezuelan Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro.

The fantasy that 2020 was a stolen election has a partly psychological origin: Trump’s narcissism prevents him from admitting defeat. But election conspiracy isn’t just a personal quirk; it is an integral part of Trump’s current political project. In particular, it provides a perfect justification for interfering in future elections.

Citing several officials, The Wall Street Journal reports that, based on Gabbard’s work, “the administration discussed executive orders on voting before the midterm elections.”

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner described Gabbard’s raid in Fulton as “a decision that should frighten us all.” He added,

Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus – in which case she is clearly violating her legal obligation to keep intelligence committees “fully and presently informed” of relevant national security concerns – or she is once again demonstrating her complete lack of fitness for the position she occupies by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to lead into a domestic political operation designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.

Speaking on CNN, Warner drew attention to reports that the head of the FBI in Atlanta had resigned or been fired before the raid. Warner also noted that the U.S. attorney who signed the search warrant application was from Missouri, not Georgia. Both of these facts reveal irregularities in the investigation that require a Congressional investigation.

Writing on the CNN news site, Zachary B. Wolf linked the Georgia raid to ongoing efforts to overturn the 2026 midterm elections:

The best example is the implication in a recent letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi that the federal government could ease its immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota if that state complied with federal voter rolls data requirements.

A local official called the letter a “ransom note” aimed at stopping what local officials say is an invasion of immigration agents in exchange for the release of Minnesota voter data.

The administration also required all states to provide detailed data on their voters, including their Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and dates of birth. The Trump administration has sued more than 20 states that refused to provide the data.