WASHINGTON (AP) — Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead U.S. intelligence services, confirmed one of the main justifications for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022: dozens of U.S.-funded workers working on some of the world’s worst pathogens. presence of biolaboratory. .

Moscow claimed that Ukraine was using laboratories to create deadly biological weapons similar to Covid-19 that could be used against Russia, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no choice but to invade neighboring Ukraine to protect his country.

In fact, the laboratories are open to the public and are part of the international effort to contain epidemics and stop biological weapons.

Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, later said she wasn’t accusing the United States or Ukraine of anything bad and was simply expressing concerns about protecting the labs.

But to critics in the United States, including lawmakers in both parties, the comments showed a disturbing willingness to echo Russian propaganda; this trend earned Gabbard praise on Russian state television.

Gabbard’s past comments supporting Russia, as well as her secret meetings with the Syrian President, a close ally of Russia and Iran, are under renewed scrutiny from Democrats and national security analysts who fear Trump could hand Russia a major victory as director of national intelligence. is taken under. It undermines Ukraine, weakens U.S. national security, and jeopardizes intelligence ties with allies.

“Gabbard, like Gaetz, is like a grenade ready to explode” Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton said he was referring to former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general. “Republicans who throw grenades for Donald Trump are risking their own personal reputations and their place in history.”

Gabbard says America’s aid to Ukraine is endangering global security by angering Russia. He criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as corrupt and expressed sympathy for Russia’s stance, given Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, the Western military alliance.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns.” He posted on Twitter at the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022.

Democrats say Gabbard’s comments point to a pro-Russian bias that could pose a problem for U.S. national security if confirmed by the Senate.

“Do you really want Putin to have all the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when it is so clearly in his pocket?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on MSNBC. “This definitely has to be a hard no.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks to coordinate the nation’s intelligence agencies and serve as the president’s primary intelligence advisor.

Gabbard and the Trump transition team did not respond to questions seeking comment. He has defended his actions in the past and said that his military service (he served in the Army National Guard for more than 20 years and served in Iraq and Kuwait) made him skeptical of military interventions.

Gabbard also defended Trump’s relationship with autocrats like Putin, saying it was Trump’s “The courage to meet enemies, dictators, allies and partners in the pursuit of peace and to view war as a last resort.”

Gabbard’s meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 angered many Democrats at the time. They said his visit helped legitimize a leader who has been accused of war crimes and has served as a proxy and host for Russia and Iran in the Middle East.

Assad invited Russia’s army to Syria to suppress the popular uprising against him in 2015. Russian forces and Iran-allied militias continued to use Syria as a base for attacks against American troops and their allies. The United States cut off diplomatic relations with Syria and imposed heavy sanctions on Assad for the brutality of Russian warplanes and Iranian allied forces in suppressing the uprising that left 500,000 dead.

Gabbard ran for president in 2020 before dropping out and supporting Democrat Joe Biden, who defeated Trump. Two years later, he left the Democratic Party to become an independent and defeated his former colleagues. “Elitist gang of warmongers” And “woke up” ideologues.

He later campaigned for several high-profile Republicans, contributed to Fox News and started a podcast.

Gabbard’s remarks about Russia did not go unnoticed in Moscow, where state media praised her and even jokingly referred to her as a Russian agent.

An article published Friday in RIA Novosti, Russia’s major state-controlled news agency, named Gabbard “titaness” and noted that he had appeared on Russian television in the past, claiming that Ukrainian intelligence saw him as. “Probably an agent of the Russian special services.”

Gabbard’s stance on Russia and Syria is likely to come up during her confirmation in the Senate.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he had questions about her comments and believed Gabbard should have received the traditional background check during the confirmation process, but he wasn’t second-guessing her loyalty.

“I would definitely like to ask him about this.” Cornyn talked about Gabbard’s Russia comments. “But I have no doubt that he is a patriot. I mean, he served in the United States military and was deployed most of the time.

America’s allies are watching the nomination process closely, concerned about how Trump’s new administration could affect intelligence cooperation and sharing.

Trump’s election is on the rise “very difficult topics” For America’s closest allies and members of the Five Eyes group, an intelligence-sharing coalition made up of the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, according to Thomas Juneau, a former strategic analyst at Canada’s Department of National Defense.

“Will the US be more selective about what it shares to pressure its allies? “If yes, this will create mistrust between the United States and its closest partners,” he said. Juneau said. “In the long term, this will negatively impact the Five Eyes, an extremely close partnership based on an extraordinarily high level of trust.”

Some officials in allied governments have refused to talk about Gabbard and Trump’s other picks. Since the revelation of Biden’s dismal debate that led to Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic nominee, some key European allies have said they are already pushing to craft a security strategy less dependent on the United States.

French President Emmanuel Macron and other European officials publicly emphasized this after the US election.

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Lederer reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.