‘Not if, but how’: Tulsi Gabbard’s ‘irrefutable proof’ of Obama treason is incomprehensible word salad

Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham she has “irrefutable proof” Obama committed treason in the 2016 investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election that year. We’ve heard what Gabbard said. And rather than “irrefutable proof,” it seems more like word salad.

Gabbard’s “proof”

Gabbard’s “proof” is one word Obama said to his staff when he asked them to investigate whether Russia interfered. Here’s what she said, referring to doubters, “I would challenge them to see if they’ve actually read the documents, every single page of the documents that we’ve released over the last couple of weeks. If not, go to odni.gov, G-O-V, it’s all right there for anyone to see.”

She added, “Those who go in and read this will see how President Obama directed that a National Security Council meeting be called to talk about Russia, that the report that came out of that meeting was filled with tasks that were delivered by James Clapper’s assistant to John Brennan and to other elements of the intelligence community.”

Gabbard went on to say, “John Brennen was the head of the CIA at the time, all saying, per the president’s direction, per the president’s order, and very specifically, they were tasked to create an intelligence assessment that detailed how Moscow tried to influence the election, not if, but how.”

She continued, “And this was the beginning of this manufactured intelligence assessment, where they knowingly wrote things in this assessment that were false, and they knew they were false.”

Or, in other words, because Gabbard claims Obama said “how” Russia interfered rather than “if” there’s “irrefutable proof” that Russiagate was a hoax and that Obama is guilty of treason. One social media comment noted, “All those words in that salad and she ain’t say a [goddamn] thing.”

Gabbard’s “Russiagate” claims

A declassified intelligence report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and multiple bipartisan investigations have concluded that while Russia did not alter vote totals in the 2016 U.S. election, it did conduct a sweeping influence campaign aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

The ODNI’s 2017 assessment, echoed by the Mueller investigation and a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, found that Russia’s interference included hacking Democratic emails and a broad disinformation effort on social media.

Although critics later questioned aspects of the ODNI report’s sourcing and the role of the discredited Steele dossier, the core finding that Russia aimed to influence the election in Trump’s favor has remained widely accepted across party lines.

Gabbard reignited debate by declassifying documents she claims prove a “treasonous conspiracy” by former President Obama and senior intelligence officials to fabricate the Russia-Trump narrative. Gabbard referred the materials to the Department of Justice, which has since opened a grand jury investigation into the Obama-era officials.

While Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the inquiry is active, legal experts and critics argue that Gabbard’s claims are unsubstantiated and mischaracterize routine internal deliberations as a coordinated coup. No indictments have been issued, and analysts caution that a successful prosecution under treason statutes remains highly unlikely.