U.S. national intelligence director is silent on Venezuela operation

WASHINGTON— As of Saturday night, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had yet to weigh in on the U.S. operation to remove Nicolás Maduro from power in Caracas, more than 24 hours after President Trump approved the daring mission to capture the Venezuelan leader.

His silence on the operation surprised some in the U.S. intelligence community, which laid the groundwork for the mission for several months and whose assets in Venezuela were endangered as the operation progressed.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, by contrast, accompanied Trump as the extraction continued overnight at Mar-a-Lago and stood next to the president as he held a news conference announcing the results.

Ratcliffe “Teamwork at its best” wrote on social mediaIt was published alongside photos of the president with his team in a makeshift situation room set up at Trump’s Florida mansion.

Gabbard, a native Hawaiian who spends the holidays in her home state, according to the

In a speech at Turning Point USA’s annual conference last month, Gabbard criticized “warmongers” within the “deep state” of the intelligence community she leads who are trying to thwart Trump’s efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

“The American people are often told that we must choose between freedom or security, and which side often wins on that proposition,” he told the assembled crowd. “Freedom loses, and warmongers claim they are doing what they are doing for our safety. That is a lie.”

Outside of government during Trump’s first term, Gabbard also criticized advocates of regime change in Venezuela: Writing in 2019“It’s about oil…again.”

“The United States needs to stay away from Venezuela,” Gabbard wrote at the time. “Let the Venezuelan people determine their future.

“We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders,” he added, “so we should stop trying to choose their leaders.”