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‘Perfect RT Talking Head’: Kremlin Propaganda Outlet Influenced Gabbard’s Views, Ex-Aides Say
Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the entire U.S. Intelligence Community, was reportedly influenced by the Kremlin-funded media outlet RT, according to an ABC News report citing her former aides. The sentiment may be mutual, as Russia’s propaganda networks have shown an affinity for Gabbard, the ex-Democratic Congresswoman who has recently become a MAGA Republican and vocal supporter of the President-elect.
“Three former aides said Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, regularly read and shared articles from the Russian news site RT … which the U.S. intelligence community characterized in 2017 as ‘the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.'”
Gabbard continued these practices “long after” she was advised RT was not a credible source, according to one aide.
ABC News, noting some on the left have suggested Gabbard might be “compromised,” describes her “posture” on Russia as “rosy.”
The Daily Beast reports that “Rep. Jason Crow said there are ‘deep questions about where her loyalties lie,’ and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, without offering evidence, claimed Gabbard is ‘likely a Russian asset.’ Gabbard has repeatedly denied such claims.”
READ MORE: Hawley Throws Hegseth Under the Bus: ‘Not 100% Clear Who Trump Really Wants Right Now’
Gabbard’s aides, according to ABC, say she regularly read and shared articles from RT, formerly called Russia Today. The media outlet has been banned in parts of the world, including by the European Union.
In September, the U.S. State Department alleged RT had been engaging in “covert influence activities,” and had “engaged in information operations, covert influence, and military procurement.”
ABC News added that the U.S. Department of Justice had “also indicted two RT employees in September for their alleged role in what the DOJ called a scheme to pay right-wing social media influencers nearly $10 million to ‘disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.'”
At least one expert says Gabbard’s alleged decision to continue to rely on RT is problematic.
“That Gabbard’s views mirror Russia’s narrative and disinformation themes can but suggest naïveté, collusion, or politically opportunistic sycophancy to echo whatever she believes Trump wants to hear,” Doug London, a retired 34-year veteran intelligence officer told ABC News. He added, “none of which bodes well for the president’s principal intelligence adviser responsible for enabling the [U.S. intelligence community] to inform decision-making by telling it like it is.”
But for years some have suggested Gabbard has an apparent affinity for Russian propaganda and for the Russian propaganda outlet—and that it was not just a one-way street.
The New York Times last month described Gabbard as “a favorite source of anti-American content on Russia’s state television networks” and “a darling of the Kremlin’s vast state media apparatus — and, more recently, of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who last week picked her to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies and departments.”
READ MORE: Hegseth: Trump Told Me ‘I’m Behind You All the Way’ But Reports Suggest Otherwise
Vladimir Solovyov, a popular [Russian] talk show host, called her ‘our girlfriend’ in a segment in 2022. The program included an interview Ms. Gabbard did with Tucker Carlson in which she claimed that Mr. Biden’s goal was to end Mr. Putin’s control of the Russian government, according to Julia Davis, the creator of the Russian Media Monitor, which tracks Kremlin propaganda.”
“Trump’s pick for top intel job has been accused of ‘traitorous’ parroting of Russian propaganda,” NBC News reported last month. “Tulsi Gabbard, who has never worked in the intelligence world, has denied accusations that she promoted Kremlin disinformation.”
CNN’s Marshall Cohen, who covers “major legal cases and Congressional investigations, often with a focus on democracy, elections and disinformation,” made several observations on February 21, 2020 in this social media thread (which includes links to RT that NCRM is not republishing):
“It is staggering how Trump’s tweets mirror the propaganda coming from Russia, as presented on RT, which I’ve monitored for years. (1) attacks corporate ties of US media, (2) defends Gabbard and Stein, (3) denies Russian meddling in US politics, (4) says US elections are ‘rigged.'”
“There is so much on Tulsi Gabbard that she has her own page on the RT website. Dozens of friendly stories, focusing intently on her lawsuit against Clinton, highlighting stories about her supporters getting harassed, etc.”
“…there are tons of examples of RT denying Russian meddling in 2016. RT is controlled by the Russian government, after all. It’s the party line.”
And he offered “an example of RT stoking fears and amplifying content about how US elections are potentially rigged,” pointing to an article that “was posted a few weeks before the 2016 election.”
Dr. Caroline Orr Bueno is a “postdoctoral research associate, writer, and internationally recognized expert in the study of cognitive security, disinformation, weaponized influence, extremism, and social media manipulation,” according to her bio.
In 2019 she wrote, “Russian propaganda outlet RT has published at least 6 articles about Tulsi Gabbard in the past two days. Ironically, several of them are mocking the idea that she’s a Russian asset.”
Russian propaganda outlet RT has published at least 6 articles about Tulsi Gabbard in the past two days. Ironically, several of them are mocking the idea that she’s a Russian asset. pic.twitter.com/XIe5zliVzk
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) October 20, 2019
And just last month, Juan Forero, the Wall Street Journal’s Bureau Chief for South America, wrote: “Tulsi Gabbard, who could direct national intelligence, has been perfect RT talking head. When she visited Syrian strongman Bashar Al-Assad, her real value was not what she said about him, but the fabrications she told the world about the Syrian conflict.”
READ MORE: Pete Hegseth’s Mom Urges ‘Female Senators’ to Ignore Media Reports, Confirm Him as SecDef
Image via Reuters
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
