Breaking Tulsi Gabbard Departure; Might it signal other issues?
One thing for sure is that Tulsi’s departure signals personal sacrifice amid extraordinarily difficult duties and circumstances.
However, the optics during wartime (yes, our nation is at war) will be amplified by many with conspiracies, perceptions of conspiracies, and many credible and incredible social media observations of instability inside the administration, transition friction, or unresolved internal debates over the war’s direction, purpose and/or justification.
History will be the best judge of those decisions that caused the U.S. to enter this war in the first place, but for now, we’re in it and it has to be resolved in our favor.
In my judgement, Tulsi has been one of the most effective members of President Donald J. Trump‘s cabinet all while dealing with obvious internal disagreements and tensions.
The “Acting” leadership might fill the immediate gaps, but sustained effectiveness depends on how quickly a permanent replacement is confirmed and whether the IC maintains coherence during this transition.
While everyone is replaceable, Tulsi brought a unique no nonsense approach to her job as the DNI. That will be a huge void to fill. The bureaucracy will move quickly to fill in holes but instead of maintaining her level of transparency, the holes will be filled with concrete and fences will be erected around them.
Wars test institutions.
Our President understands there is already a serious deficit of trust between the Intelligence Community and the people it is suppose to serve. Tulsi was well on her way to closing that deficit.
The President also has a big task on hand to quickly fill the gap or risk serious concerns about trust as the nation rolls into another challenging political season, one this President and our nation can ill afford to be on the losing side of.
Leadership changes is a stress point in the mildest of situations. However, in this era of uncertainty where great challenges and threats face our nation, this change is one that must be handled with great skill.
Lastly, this leadership change is not necessarily fatal, but the transition of another cabinet member, one of such prominence as the Director of the United States intelligence system, rates more than a footnote in the Trump presidency. This loss may require a chapter all by itself.
