Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard returns to Capitol Hill this week for an annual set of hearings on worldwide threats — her most significant public appearance in months and her clearest opportunity yet to address the intelligence picture surrounding the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers are expected to press Gabbard on the administration\u2019s handling of the Iran conflict, homeland security concerns, election integrity and the broader global threat environment at a moment of rising tension.<\/p>\n
The hearings will also offer a rare extended look at an intelligence chief who has spent much of the past year largely out of public view. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hear from her on Wednesday, March 18, with the House hearing set for Thursday, March 19.<\/p>\n
![\"Anna\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/0ceb37e6-2454-40c2-b2c3-c64a9d6c7267\/tulsi-gabbard-3-gty-gmh-260316_1773692525354_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Anna\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a Senate Committee on Intelligence Hearing, March 25, 2025 in Washington.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She heads into the hearings under fresh scrutiny after the resignation of Joe Kent<\/a>, the administration\u2019s top counterterrorism official, who stepped down Tuesday over his objections to the Iran war — the highest-profile administration official to resign publicly over the conflict.<\/p>\n An ODNI official told ABC News that Gabbard was not asked by the White House to fire Kent, pushing back on a report first aired by Fox News.<\/p>\n Kent\u2019s resignation sharpened questions already hanging over the administration\u2019s case for war — whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.<\/p>\n In his resignation letter, Kent said he could not \u201cin good conscience\u201d support the war and argued that Iran posed \u201cno imminent threat\u201d to the nation, directly undercutting President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated public justification for the conflict.<\/p>\n Trump has previously said Tehran posed an imminent threat and was \u201cvery nearly\u201d in a position to strike.<\/p>\n Hours after Kent\u2019s resignation became public, Gabbard moved to publicly back Trump\u2019s authority to make that call.<\/p>\n In a post on X, she said the president, as commander in chief, is responsible for determining \u201cwhat is and is not an imminent threat\u201d and whether action is necessary to protect U.S. troops, the American people and the country.<\/p>\n She added that ODNI\u2019s role is to coordinate and integrate intelligence, so the president has the best information available to inform his decisions, and said Trump had concluded Iran posed an imminent threat after reviewing the available intelligence.<\/p>\n Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard listens to a question as she speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, July 23, 2025, in Washington.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She did not directly address Kent\u2019s allegations or mention him by name.<\/p>\n The moment is especially striking for Gabbard because few figures in Trump\u2019s orbit spent more time warning about regime change wars, intelligence failures and the cost of Washington interventionism.<\/p>\n As a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, she was so vocal in her opposition to war with Iran that she sold \u201cNo War With Iran\u201d T-shirts.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview<\/a> with ABC News last year, she again spoke about diplomacy, military restraint and the human cost of conflict in terms that reflected a worldview she has carried for years.<\/p>\n In that interview, Gabbard said the stress of her first deployment in her mid-20s turned part of her hair white, and that she kept the streak as a reminder of the high human cost of war.<\/p>\n \u201cWar must always be the last resort, only after all measures of diplomacy have been completely exhausted,\u201d she told ABC News in the interview.<\/p>\n This week’s hearings will also unfold against the backdrop of Gabbard\u2019s broader and unusually quiet tenure. Before taking office, she was rarely far from public view, frequently appearing on television, podcasts and social media.<\/p>\n As DNI, that version of her has largely faded from public view.<\/p>\n In recent months, she has appeared mostly in glimpses, at major administration moments.<\/p>\n Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and the first person in U.S. history to serve as DNI while in military uniform, appeared in uniform at Dover Air Force Base earlier this month during the dignified transfer of six American soldiers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait in the opening hours of the war with Iran.<\/p>\n Attorney General Pam Bondi, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and second Lady of the United States Usha Vance attend a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base March 7, 2026 in Dover, Delaware.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She also heads into the hearing with other controversies still hanging over her.<\/p>\n Gabbard has drawn scrutiny for her role in the administration\u2019s election integrity push, including her appearance outside the FBI\u2019s operation<\/a> in Fulton County, Georgia, in January, where federal agents seized election materials tied to the 2020 election, and her subsequent acknowledgment that she arranged a call between President Donald Trump and the agents involved. She has also faced continuing questions about her investigations into election security in Puerto Rico and Arizona.<\/p>\n![\"Democratic](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/fd9c9aa1-62e3-4910-b966-b6226dd39e95\/tulsi-gabbard-5-ap-gmh-260316_1773692526486_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Democratic")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>![\"Dover\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/4cffddee-05bd-4b8f-b940-332a3243baa7\/tulsi-gabbard-2-gty-gmh-260316_1773692524778_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Dover\\"")
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![\"model\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/1d0add07-709d-441c-9b19-c025bcebcf86\/tulsi-gabbard-4-rt-gmh-260316_1773693030771_hpEmbed_22x15.jpg?w=375 "\\"model\\"")
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