On September 3, 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard addressed the National Conservatism conference in Washington, DC. The transcript of her remarks is below.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard

Transcript of Remarks

National Conservatism Conference

Washington, DC

September 03, 2025

It’s so great to be able to join all of you here today. This is an event I am grateful to have been invited to, year after year, the scheduling just never worked out. So, I'm so glad to be able to come and to be able to greet you in person and just talk a little bit about the grave challenges that we face. Yes, in the work that we're doing on a daily basis, it's very appropriate that I'm following Mike Benz in this, because he's focused on a lot of the same things that we are focused on investigating and uncovering. But really, the challenges that he is talking about are challenges that every one of us as Americans are facing. And the task is not just for a Mike Benz or for a certain agency to take on. This is a moment of opportunity in our country where we have to be very clear-eyed about the direct threats and challenges to our fundamental rights and liberties, and freedoms, and what we, the people, are going to do about it.

When we look at how it came to be for me and for others who I serve alongside to be here and to be a part of this change, we go back to the 2024 election and look at how President Trump was reelected and sent back to the White House by a truly unique cross-partisan coalition of Americans who looked beyond labels, and really were attracted to his message of putting the American people first.

It was a resounding statement in his win of that election by a significant and historic margin, and it was a clear rejection of the status quo of the Washington elite, of political leaders who put their own self-interest ahead of the interests of the American people. And it was a demand for a government of, by, and for the people.

So here we are, about seven, eight months into this administration. President Trump has wasted no time in challenging this system, this broken system, in Washington and striking at its very root, delivering results for the American people to make our nation more safe, secure, prosperous, and free.

I have the privilege of serving as America's eighth Director of National Intelligence. And President Trump has entrusted in me the mission and responsibility of overseeing the intelligence community, this sprawling network of agencies and entities that are charged with the task of providing timely and objective intelligence to the president and policymakers, free from politicization.

Unfortunately, in my short tenure here so far, we have already seen too many examples of politicization and weaponization of intelligence throughout our country's history.

We look at where we are now over the last several weeks, we’ve declassified and released documents that exposed how President Obama and leaders in the intelligence community knowingly manufactured a false intelligence document after the 2016 election was done, after the American people said no, we want Donald Trump to go and be our commander in chief, not Hillary Clinton. And this manufactured document alleged that Russia aspired to help President Trump win the election, with the aim of undermining his presidency and usurping the will and the voices of the American people who sent Trump to the White House.

When you look at some of the very same leaders who led this manufactured intelligence document, like James Clapper, also had a very direct hand in manufacturing intelligence on the weapons of mass destruction, the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, to support George W. Bush's regime change war in Iraq.

For me to be here as the eighth Director of National Intelligence and uncover how James Clapper and others like John Brennan manufactured intelligence to try to undermine President Trump's administration and presidency and the voices of the American people, and then go back to the founding of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that came about as a result of the terrorist attack on 9/11, and the manufacturing of intelligence to support the regime change war in Iraq that George Bush led, is an interesting bookend where we find ourselves still dealing with these same issues of politicization and weaponization of intelligence.

James Clapper at that time was the director of the agency that is now called the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, or NGA. And he wrote in his book about how Vice President Dick Cheney was pushing for intelligence, pushing for intelligence to support the invasion of Iraq, to support the narrative of Iraq's alleged WMDs, and to support the narrative of Iraq's alleged ties to Al-Qaeda, neither of which actually existed.

So in response to this, James Clapper ordered his agency to create images that Colin Powell then went on to use to support their alleged WMDs narrative. And in James Clapper’s words, we were, quote, "so eager to help that we found what wasn't really there." End of quote.

We've seen other examples—those that we know of. There are many others that I believe we don't yet know of—how leaders in the intelligence community, in the FBI, knowingly used false information to gain FISA warrants to illegally spy on American citizens. These are just a few of, unfortunately, what is a long list of known examples of politicization and weaponization that all point to the truth that many of us here in this room know, which is that the rot runs deep, and it's not just in the intelligence community. I've seen examples of this across almost every federal agency.

And so it requires us all to confront the uncomfortable truth that we have these conspirators, these traitors to the Constitution, who are working within our government, who dangerously believe that they are not only above the law, but that they are above the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. People who believe that they have the right to undermine the duly elected president of the United States because they disagree with his positions or his policies, and that they know better.

We go back to the first Trump administration and a prominent example of then former Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. And I remember being in Congress as a Democrat at the time, seeing his testimony and the testimony of others, basically saying, well, we have to protect the country from Donald Trump, the person the American people elected to be the president of the United States. Whether we agree or disagree on policy is not the point. If you disagree on policy, go run for president and market your policies to the American people. It undermines our Constitution, our democratic republic, and we have people within our government who are not the President of the United States, who are not elected by the American people, taking it upon themselves to undermine, ultimately, the American people and the Constitution.

These people have gotten away with these kinds of activities for so long, because they're protected by an entire system that is built to shield their nefarious activities. And they do this with the assistance and the protection of the deep state and the propaganda media. And those of us who have been targeted by this deep state are very familiar with the tactics.

Keep this in mind. This happens frequently in real time, as we gather here today, where someone in the intelligence community leaks classified intelligence to their friends in the propaganda media. Those individuals in the propaganda media eagerly print this classified intelligence from unnamed sources. Then we see other people in the media talk about this classified intelligence. No one's verified it. No one's done any kind of vetting, no one has done any basic journalistic work. And then we see politicians repeating and talking about this thing that was leaked to the media. And we've seen how this tried-and-true playbook that is used over and over again to either smear their opponents to, in President Trump's case, to be used as a basis for FBI raids on his home, lawfare, impeachments, endless investigations, and so forth.

So I get asked oftentimes by people who don't come to events like this, who are just working hard and trying to raise a family and trying to get by, when they say, what is the deep state? People talk about the deep state. What is it? This is what we're talking about. It's not some grand conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy to undermine the Constitution. But this is the reality that we are operating in, and it's important for us to talk about it, to be very clear-eyed about it so that we can combat it with the truth. And this is why exposing the truth is so important, to bring about that real transparency and that accountability, ensuring that our Constitution and Bill of Rights—and this is something that I'm focused on in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and pushing throughout the intelligence community—is actually focusing on the Constitution, making it an event when new people are brought in to any of these organizations. Every one of them has to swear an oath, as many here did if you served in the military, if you've served in different positions in government, to support and defend the Constitution, to talk about it, have a discussion. What does this actually mean and how do we apply it in the work that is done every single day? Because it must be our North Star every day. It must be that guiding principle that serves as our foundation and the left and right limits in the decisions that are being made within our work.

Those who serve in government in any position at the very top, or those who may be coming in brand new, our sole focus must be on serving the American people and upholding the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

It's very, I feel, appropriate that I'm coming and speaking to you after Mike Benz and hearing at least some of the things he talked about at the end, about the various attacks on our fundamental rights, freedoms, and liberties that are occurring not only here in the United States, but how these threats are coming from policies and agreements that are being talked about in multinational organizations and settings. Our founding documents were based on our inalienable rights and freedoms that are granted to us by God and no one else. And it's up to us to continue to speak that truth and stand up against those who seek to take them away, no matter where they are or who they are.

We have a lot of work to do. We are working hard every day towards this end, when you look at how deeply entrenched the deep state is, those who believe they are more powerful than the Constitution, you can understand the work that we have ahead of us. But I'm grateful to serve in this position, grateful to President Trump for entrusting me with this mission, to truly seek the truth, find the truth, and tell the truth to the American people, so that true accountability and true change, lasting change, can come about.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. This change will only be possible if every one of us, as Americans, stands together and fights for it. The future of our country as a free nation is truly in our hands, and we cannot be complacent. We cannot fall asleep at the wheel and allow anyone to sneak in the back door and take it from us, literally and figuratively.

So this movement for positive change, institutional and historic change, is about more than one person or one organization. It's about all of us, and it's about restoring the promise of America and the vision that our founders had for our country. And as we go back and look at their courage and their strength and the threats that were laid on them as they worked to write these founding documents, I hope that that gives us inspiration and courage and strength to fight the battles that we have before us, because we are the ones that they were referring to when they talked about a government of, by, and for the people. We're the only ones who can make it happen.

Thank you for standing for freedom and liberty and truth. Aloha.

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