Tulsi Gabbard says Iran's government still intact but refuses to discuss
talks with Trump about war
[March 19, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER, DAVID KLEPPER and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government's top intelligence official told
lawmakers Wednesday that Iran's government "appears to be intact but
largely degraded” yet repeatedly dodged questions about whether
President Donald Trump had been warned about the fallout from the
weeks-old war, including Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its
effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, also stated in
prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. attacks
on Iran last year had “obliterated” Iran's nuclear program and that
there had been no effort since then to rebuild that capability.
The statement was notable given Trump's repeated assertions that a war
with Iran was necessary to head off what he said was an imminent threat
from the Islamic Republic. Gabbard pointedly said that conclusion was
the president's alone to draw as she declined to directly answer whether
the intelligence community had likewise assessed that Iran's nuclear
system presented an imminent risk to the United States.
“It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what
is and is not an imminent threat,” she said at one point.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia shot back: “It is precisely your
responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United
States.”
The testimony came at the first of two congressional hearings held each
year to offer the public a glimpse into the largely secret operations of
the government's intelligence agencies and the threats they confront.
The hearings this week take place at a time of scrutiny over the war
with Iran and heightened concerns about terrorism at home after recent
attacks at a Michigan synagogue and a Virginia university. Wednesday's
hearing also came a day after the resignation of Joe Kent as director of
the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent said he could not “in good
conscience” back the war and did not agree that Iran posed an imminent
threat.
But the hours-long hearing offered few revelations from Gabbard, who
repeatedly declined to discuss conversations with Trump, or other senior
intelligence officials who testified.
“I am very disappointed,” said an exasperated Sen. Mark Warner, the top
Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “It's the only one time
of year the public gets to hear from you guys in this kind of setting.”
Gabbard deflected questions about intelligence given to Trump
A frequent line of questioning for Democrats: What intelligence, if any,
had been given to Trump about the war's potential consequences? Trump,
for instance, has said he was surprised that Iran responded to strikes
from the United States by attacking Arab nations and has been contending
with the economic impact of the effective closure of the Strait of
Hormuz, a body of water connecting the Persian Gulf to the world’s
oceans and a vital passageway for oil and gas.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that
Trump was “fully briefed” on the possibility of Iran closing the Strait
of Hormuz and that the Pentagon has been planning for the possibility of
Iran closing it “for DECADES.”
But Trump’s plan to secure the waterway is unclear, especially after he
said this week that NATO and most other allies had rejected his calls to
help secure it. Iran has said the strait is open except to the U.S. and
its allies.
Democrats got few direct answers when they pressed administration
officials on what Trump understood about that possibility, with Gabbard
saying she would not divulge her conversations with him and CIA Director
John Ratcliffe observing that he had been in countless briefings with
the president.
[to top of second column]
|
From left, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Intelligence Agency
Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi
Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman,
and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are seated before the Senate
Committee on Intelligence hearings to examine worldwide threats on
Capitol Hill Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“We’re trying to figure out if the president knew what the downside
was of the Strait of Hormuz being closed,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, an
Arizona Democrat. “Did he know this was going to happen or did he
just disregard it?”
Gabbard appeared to try to thread a needle between emphasizing the
intelligence community's views of Iran's risks — she said, for
instance, that internal tensions would continue to increase even if
the regime's leadership remained intact — and not completely echoing
the president's arguments of an imminent threat.
At one point, Warner noted that Gabbard, in her prepared written
statement submitted to the committee, said Iran’s nuclear enrichment
program had been obliterated in strikes last year, but her opening
remarks on Wednesday did not use that language.
He asked whether she had omitted that reference to conform to
Trump's claims of an imminent threat. Gabbard insisted that she had
skipped some of her written statement in the interest of time.
Trump has sought to distance himself from Kent. Ratcliffe tried to
do the same Wednesday when he was asked whether intelligence
supported Kent’s assessment that Iran was not an imminent threat.
“The intelligence reflects the contrary,” Ratcliffe said.
Questions about other attacks and Gabbard's presence at an FBI
search
Gabbard and Ratcliffe fielded the majority of questions, but other
witnesses included the heads of the National Security Agency and
Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel, who
was pressed about the terrorism threat amid a spate of attacks this
month. Those include a man with a past terrorism conviction who
opened fire inside an Old Dominion University classroom in Virginia
and a Lebanese-born man in Michigan who drove his car into a
synagogue.
One subject that did not receive attention: a deadly missile strike
on an elementary school in Iran, which people familiar with the
matter have said the U.S. likely carried out as a result of outdated
intelligence.
Apart from Iran, Gabbard was pressed on her presence at an FBI
search in January of the main election hub in Fulton County,
Georgia, where agents seized voter data related to the 2020
presidential election. Her appearance at a domestic law enforcement
operation raised eyebrows given that Gabbard's office is meant to
focus squarely on foreign threats.
Warner described her appearance there as part of an “organized
effort to misuse her national security powers to interfere in
domestic politics and potentially provide a pretext for the
president’s unconstitutional efforts to seize control of the
upcoming elections.”
Gabbard responded that she was present for the search at the request
of the president but did not participate, though she later said she
helped to oversee it.
The House Intelligence Committee will hold its own threats hearing
on Thursday.
_____
Associated Press writers Mike Catalini, Ben Finley and Michelle L.
Price contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
