Tulsi Gabbard lets Iran nuke bombshell slip as Senate hearing spirals for Trump’s embattled spy chief
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard let slip a bombshell about Iran’s nuclear program during a Senate hearing Wednesday – by conspicuously skipping a passage from her own prepared remarks claiming the threat had been ‘obliterated.’
Gabbard was grilled about why she chose not to read out the passage from her speech during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, and whether it was because it contradicted Donald Trump.
One of the primary reasons for the war, as Trump and top military and administration officials have repeatedly said, is to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities and prevent the Islamic Republic from creating a nuclear weapon.
In her written submission, Gabbard stated: ‘As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.
‘The entrances to the underground facilities that were bombed have been buried and shuttered with cement. We continue to monitor for any early indicators on what position the current or any new leadership in Iran will take with regard to authorizing a nuclear weapons program.’
But Gabbard chose not to read this out.
The glaring omission was rounded on by Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who said: ‘In your printed testimony today, you said Iran’s nuclear missile program was obliterated. You omitted that paragraph from your opening statement.’
Gabbard replied: ‘I recognized that time was running long.’
Warner hit back: ‘So you chose to omit the parts that contradict Trump?’
DNI Tulsi Gabbard omitted a part of her prepared remarks during her Senate testimony mentioning how Trump’s summer 2025 strikes on Iran in Operation Midnight Hammer ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear supply
Gabbard said she left out the portion because her remarks were running long and she was afraid of running out of time
Trump and top military officials claimed the US ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities in June 2025. However, Trump has also said one reason the US is at war with Iran now is because of its nuclear capabilities
The brutal grilling comes as Gabbard is under intense scrutiny after the resignation of Joe Kent, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, on Tuesday.
Kent, an Iraq war veteran, forms part of the ‘America First’ non-interventionist faction of White House officials, which includes Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance
Any sign during the committee hearing that Gabbard was breaking with the President would have risked further examination of her loyalty to the White House.
She and Vance held a private meeting with Kent about his resignation letter.
Gabbard, along with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel, testified together about worldwide threats facing the US.
The annual hearing is the only open venue where lawmakers can grill the Trump officials on their performance and threat assessments.
The session became combative at times as Democrats pressed the officials on Trump’s war on Iran.
Operation Midnight Hammer completely ‘obliterated’ those capabilities, Gabbard’s prepared remarks stated. It also said the Iranians made ‘no efforts’ to rebuild their destroyed nuclear facilities.
‘I recognized that the time was running long, and I skipped through some of the portions,’ Gabbard said.
‘Iran was trying to recover from the severe damage to its nuclear infrastructure,’ Gabbard later testified, matching some of what the White House has said.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia also grilled Gabbard on the assessment that there was an ‘imminent threat’ posed by Iran.
‘The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment,’ the DNI shot back.
When asked by the Georgia lawmaker about whether she and the ODNI determined Iran posed an ‘imminent threat,’ the DNI deferred to the President.
‘Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the President.’
Trump said in the summer of 2025 that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been ‘obliterated.’ However, he has said a main reason that the US is at war with Iran is over the country’s nuclear program
Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned on Tuesday in opposition to the US war on Iran
The answer upset Ossoff, who pointed out how Gabbard was there to brief the lawmakers on the worldwide threats facing the US, and whether she discussed those threats with Trump.
She also shared that other US rivals, in addition to Iran, are speeding ahead on nuclear research.
‘The intelligence community assesses that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems, with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our homeland within range,’ she said.
The spy chief also lauded the agency formerly held by her friend Joe Kent, who publicly resigned from the administration on Tuesday, citing his opposition to the US war in Iran, which he said was begun due to pressure on Trump from Israel.
‘Our ODNI National Counterterrorism Center has been at the forefront of ramping up, and I believe, is more active today than it has been, certainly in a long time,’ she said.
‘We are dedicating every resource that they ask for as well as the counterterrorism elements across the IC to make sure that we are never taking our eye off of this persistent threat to the American people.’
There has been no announcement as to who will replace Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
