Tulsi Gabbard gets flak over old pro-Russia remarks

Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the US intelligence services, in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of US-funded biolabs.

Moscow claimed Ukraine was using the labs to create deadly bioweapons that could be used against Russia. In fact, the labs are public and part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons.

Gabbard, a military veteran and a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, later said she wasn’t accusing the US or Ukraine of anything nefarious and just voicing concerns about protecting the labs. But to critics in the US, the comments showed a disturbing willingness to parrot Russian propaganda and have attracting fresh scrutiny from Democrats and national security analysts.