Speaking before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Tuesday during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s hearing, Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., called for “repercussions” to be handed to whomever was responsible for administering the spying on Tulsi Gabbard, who is now director of national intelligence, during flights in 2024.
“Just last night, I received the first set of records from the department regarding Tulsi Gabbard placement on the TSA Quiet Skies watch list,” Paul said.
“These documents confirm our suspicions: Federal air marshals surveilled the now Director of National Intelligence during domestic flights in 2024, reporting back information related to her appearance and even how many electronics she was observed using.”
Paul later noted how federal air marshals followed Gabbard onto planes, unbeknownst to the former congresswoman.
“I’m horrified by the idea that we took a former congresswoman and we’re surveilling her and riding on jets with her,” Paul said.
Gabbard later took to X to comment on Paul’s statement, writing: “Under the flimsy guise of ‘domestic terrorism,’ Federal law enforcement and intelligence were repeatedly weaponized against me and other Americans who exercised our First Amendment rights in speaking out against the Biden Administration’s policies and therefore deemed a threat to their power.”
Paul, in a call for accountability, said he was suspicious that Gabbard wasn’t the only person the Biden administration had followed.
“So, I want to hear the whole story of what happened. I want to hear that people have been let go, that they’re no longer doing this, if there were abuses of Tulsi Gabbard’s liberties, I want to hear from that. But I want repercussions to come from this,” Paul told Noem.
The story about Gabbard being followed onto planes was a big story in August 2024, at a time when the former presidential candidate was critical of the Biden-Harris administration.
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