Trump says ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation’ in Iran negotiations

(WASHINGOTN) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard returns to Capitol Hill this week for an annual set of hearings on worldwide threats — her most significant public appearance in months and her clearest opportunity yet to address the intelligence picture surrounding the war in Iran.

Lawmakers are expected to press Gabbard on the administration’s handling of the Iran conflict, homeland security concerns, election integrity and the broader global threat environment at a moment of rising tension.

The hearings will also offer a rare extended look at an intelligence chief who has spent much of the past year largely out of public view. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hear from her on Wednesday, March 18, with the House hearing set for Thursday, March 19.

She heads into the hearings under fresh scrutiny after the resignation of Joe Kent, the administration’s top counterterrorism official, who stepped down Tuesday over his objections to the Iran war — the highest-profile administration official to resign publicly over the conflict.

An ODNI official told ABC News that Gabbard was not asked by the White House to fire Kent, pushing back on a report first aired by Fox News.

Kent’s resignation sharpened questions already hanging over the administration’s case for war — whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.

In his resignation letter, Kent said he could not “in good conscience” support the war and argued that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the nation, directly undercutting President Donald Trump’s repeated public justification for the conflict.

Trump has previously said Tehran posed an imminent threat and was “very nearly” in a position to strike.

Hours after Kent’s resignation became public, Gabbard moved to publicly back Trump’s authority to make that call.

In a post on X, she said the president, as commander in chief, is responsible for determining “what is and is not an imminent threat” and whether action is necessary to protect U.S. troops, the American people and the country.

She added that ODNI’s role is to coordinate and integrate intelligence, so the president has the best information available to inform his decisions, and said Trump had concluded Iran posed an imminent threat after reviewing the available intelligence.

She did not directly address Kent’s allegations or mention him by name.

The moment is especially striking for Gabbard because few figures in Trump’s orbit spent more time warning about regime change wars, intelligence failures and the cost of Washington interventionism.

As a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, she was so vocal in her opposition to war with Iran that she sold “No War With Iran” T-shirts.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News last year, she again spoke about diplomacy, military restraint and the human cost of conflict in terms that reflected a worldview she has carried for years.

In that interview, Gabbard said the stress of her first deployment in her mid-20s turned part of her hair white, and that she kept the streak as a reminder of the high human cost of war.

“War must always be the last resort, only after all measures of diplomacy have been completely exhausted,” she told ABC News in the interview.

This week’s hearings will also unfold against the backdrop of Gabbard’s broader and unusually quiet tenure. Before taking office, she was rarely far from public view, frequently appearing on television, podcasts and social media.

As DNI, that version of her has largely faded from public view.

In recent months, she has appeared mostly in glimpses, at major administration moments.

Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and the first person in U.S. history to serve as DNI while in military uniform, appeared in uniform at Dover Air Force Base earlier this month during the dignified transfer of six American soldiers killed in a drone strike in Kuwait in the opening hours of the war with Iran.

She also heads into the hearing with other controversies still hanging over her.

Gabbard has drawn scrutiny for her role in the administration’s election integrity push, including her appearance outside the FBI’s operation in Fulton County, Georgia, in January, where federal agents seized election materials tied to the 2020 election, and her subsequent acknowledgment that she arranged a call between President Donald Trump and the agents involved. She has also faced continuing questions about her investigations into election security in Puerto Rico and Arizona.

ABC News previously reported that Gabbard arranged a call between Trump and FBI agents involved in the seizure of election materials in Fulton County, an unusual move given the sensitivity of the investigation. In Arizona, a senior administration official told ABC News that Gabbard was not on the ground but was still “working across the agency to ensure election integrity.”

The hearing is shaping up as more than a routine annual threat assessment.

It will be the clearest public test yet of how Gabbard explains the role she has carved out inside the Trump administration, and how she reconciles the anti-war politics that helped define her rise with the office she now holds at the center of a war she is being asked to defend.

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(WASHINGTON) — For generations, cops have obtained warrants to lawfully seek information from a specific suspect in a crime.

The Supreme Court on Monday is considering whether investigators can also use so-called “geofence warrants” to do the reverse — scanning cell phone data of thousands of innocent individuals in hopes of finding a suspect to apprehend.

The landmark case is the first time the justices will consider whether the controversial practice of digital dragnets, which have grown in popularity among law enforcement with advances in technology, violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

Critics say the warrants intrude on Americans’ reasonable expectation of privacy by compelling service providers to turn over broad swaths of user location history and time stamps within a specified area over a specified timeframe.

Advocates for geofence warrants call them a critical tool that will help police more quickly solve crimes, in turn making communities safer. They also emphasize that most cellphone users knowingly transmit location data to third-party tech companies already.

The petitioner in the case, Okello Chatrie, was indicted on charges related to an armed robbery of a Virginia credit union in 2019 and wants key cellphone location evidence against him thrown out.

Authorities relied heavily on data obtained from Google under a geofence warrant that placed Chatrie’s cellphone within 150 meters of the bank during the crime.

The Trump administration, which is defending the law enforcement tool and Chatrie’s prosecution, argues that by sharing location information with apps and service providers like Google, a person forfeits any expectation of privacy.

A decision in the case — Chatrie v U.S. — is expected by the end of June.

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(WASHINGTON) — With just one month until the high-stakes primary election in the Texas U.S. Senate race, Democrats are butting heads, with Democratic State Rep. James Talarico pushing back on allegations that he made controversial remarks about the race of his former opponent.

Talarico on Monday responded to a video from former Rep. Colin Allred, who is running for Texas’ 33rd Congressional District, that Talarico made comments critical of Allred on the basis of race.

On Sunday, a TikTok creator alleged that Talarico, in a private conversation, said that Allred was a “mediocre Black man” and that he would would rather run against Allred than Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whom he allegedly called a “formidable and intelligent Black woman.” The TikTok creator, who had previously supported Talarico, posted that the conversation happened after a town hall in Plano, Texas, in January.

Talarico’s campaign told ABC News that the individual was never a member of the campaign team. Talarico has not denied the conversation took place, but has said it was taken out of context.

Talarico, who is white, is running against Crockett in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Allred had previously announced a Senate bid, but dropped out of the race to run for the House again, saying Crockett’s entering of the race contributed to his decision.

In a video posted on X Monday afternoon, Allred endorsed Crockett and criticized Talarico for his alleged comments.

Allred claimed that Talarico “had the temerity and the audacity to say to a Black woman that he had signed up to run against a ‘mediocre Black man,’ meaning me, and not a ‘formidable, intelligent Black woman,’ meaning Jasmine Crockett.”

Talarico pushed back on the claims, arguing that the allegations are “a mischaracterization of a private conversation.”

“In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race,” Talarico said in a statement posted to X by his spokesperson.

Talarico added that he “understand[s]” how his criticism could be perceived incorrectly “given this country’s painful legacy of racism,” but emphasized his deep “respect” for Allred.

Crockett reacted to the news, thanking Allred for his endorsement and praising him for being “an even-tempered and measured person who doesn’t engage in pettiness” — though she notably did not criticize her opponent or mention him by name.

“It’s unfortunate that at the start of Black History Month, this is what we’re facing. In former Congressman Colin Allred’s video, he drew a line in the sand. He made it clear that he did not take allegations of an attack on him as simply another day in the neighborhood,” Crockett’s spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.

Earlier Monday, Talarico appeared on ABC’s “The View” and emphasized his “deep love and respect” for Crockett, saying that he will “1,000 percent” support and assist her if she were to become the Democratic nominee over him.  The Democratic nominee would face off in November with incumbent Republican John Cornyn or one of his primary challengers, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

While the allegations against Talarico were not discussed during his appearance on “The View,” he elaborated on his Senate campaign, calling for the overhaul of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and celebrating recent Democratic wins in Texas.

Reacting to the news of Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old asylum seeker who was released from a Texas detention center on Sunday, Talarico slammed the current tactics being deployed by ICE before demanding an overhaul and reorganization of the agency.

“It’s time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that is actually going to focus on public safety,” he said on “The View.”

Though Talarico has stopped short of explicitly calling for the abolition of ICE, he has repeatedly expressed a desire to reallocate funding while also maintaining border security.

Over the weekend, Democrats delivered an upset victory in the Texas Senate District 9, where Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeated President Donald Trump-endorsed GOP candidate, Leigh Wambsganss, and flipped the reliably red seat.

When asked about what he would do to win over the voters that Rehmet had flipped, Talarico emphasized that he is “not writing off any voter” or “any community.”

“I’m extending an open hand instead of a closed fist, and in my experience, if you extend that open hand, you’ll be surprised by who takes it,” Talarico said. 

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